Mysteries of Godliness 



Horatio G.Kern 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Onpijriigiji J)n. 
Shelf 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



BY 

HORATIO G. KERN. 



And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness." — i Tim. iii. 16. 



/0 ZlLf 



PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1882- 



;E>Tn 



Copyright, 1882, by Horatio G. Kern. 




PREFACE. 

The main matter of this volume, and indeed all 
of it except these few sentences of Preface, was 
submitted to the notice of a life-long friend in the 
merest condition of lead-pencil scrawling, presenting 
the thoughts of an unpretentious layman upon sub- 
jects interesting to every one of us, and which in- 
trude daily upon tens of thousands of his neighbors 
and acquaintances, who have not time nor the facil- 
ities to consider them duly, and yet whose inter- 
pretation and application form a grave portion of 
the needs of the hour. 

The obvious intention of the work appeals to our 
hearty respect. He recounts the " mysteries" which 
have beset him, and reports his solution of them, or 
at least his mitigation of their worst disturbance. 
With his own wounds healed, he acts the part of the 
good Samaritan, not only upon recreant passers-by 
but on all who will look and listen. 

This modest way of " doing good" wears true 

3 



PREFACE. 



philanthropy's rare stamp, which finds its just return 
collateral with its labor; it goes home "justified" by 
the time of sunset, and wakes to new labors of love 
on the morrOw. 

This small volume will hardly find its way imme- 
diately to our hosts of readers in America; but its 
circulation once begun will spread, and occupy for 
the hour space not likely to be better filled. It has 
a pleasant familiarity which assumes to meet our 
dogma of equality at least half-way, either journey- 
ing or at work, and to be the voice of that model 
wayfaring man to whom long ago was vouchsafed 
the power to understand the Scriptures. Let us 
make his hearty faith contagious, and thus spread 
the exceeding peace which comes of true believing. 

H. C. O. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Introduction 7 

Eternity 14 

Trinity of the Deity 19 

Immortality of the Soul 27 

Original Sin • . . .35 

Atonement 50 

God's Sovereignty and Man's Free Agency ... 82 
Resurrection of the Dead ...... 102 

Christ's Resurrected Body . ... . . .120 

Judgment 127 

Consummation of the Ages 150 

Conclusion 165 



INTRODUCTION. 



Every observant and intelligent mind must have 
noticed " in the signs of the times" for the last two 
decades an extraordinary spirit of inquiry after 
truth. This is seen in the whole realm of thought, 
whether among scholars or laymen. Men's minds 
have been turned in a most remarkable manner to 
the pursuit of truth. Especially is this the case in 
the domain of religious thought. 

The geologist has gone forth with hammer in 
hand, breaking the flinty rock that it may give up 
its secrets which have been hidden for ages; and 
he comes back with the wonderful discovery that 
this earth is some fifty or sixty millions of years 
old, which so alarmed some good old-fashioned 
people that they betook themselves to their Bibles, 
and exclaimed, " Not so, for the Bible says the 
world was made in six days, and was created only 
six thousand years ago ;" and it seemed at the time 

7 



8 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

that the geologist's hammer was likely to knock the 
props from under the former belief in the Bible ac- 
count of the creation. 

But after recovering their equanimity and reading 
again more carefully they discovered that the Bible 
does not say that the earth is only six thousand 
years old, but that " In the beginning God created 
the heavens and the earth." When that beginning 
was is not stated. But it does say God made the 
world in six days, " And He rested on the seventh 
day from all His work which He had made." 

Here, again, was another seeming difficulty to 
reconcile with the obtrusive and positive geologist. 
But by reading again it is seen that the Bible does 
not say that the world was made in six consecutive 
days of twenty-four hours each, but the " evening 
and the morning were the first day," etc., which may 
mean periods or ages of time of millions of years 
each ; and so the fears of timid Christian people were 
quieted, and the good old book remains unharmed. 

We would just here remark that while the Bible 
mentions six distinct days or periods of time in the 
formation of the earth, and marks each day by the 
expression " the evening and the morning were the 



INTRODUCTION. g 



sixth day," etc., " He rested on the seventh day from 
all His work which He had made," there is no men- 
tion made of the evening and the morning being the 
seventh day; therefore it is plain that the seventh 
day began when He had finished the work of crea- 
tion, and we are living in the seventh day. 

Again, the scientist has found out that all matter 
is changeable or transmutable ; that the earth brings 
forth grass, which the ox eats, and the grass be- 
comes beef, which man eats, and it becomes other 
flesh ; then man dies, and the earth gets its own 
again; and so on, in an endless, ever-changing 
round, this transmutation of matter proceeds ad in- 
finitum. 

So the believer in the resurrection of the body is 
perplexed again, and does not know what to say. 
But some careful readers of the Scriptures fail to 
find any definite statement that the material body 
will rise again; but it is positively stated that the 
"spiritual" body will be raised. This subject is 
treated of at length under the caption of the " Resur- 
rection." 

The doctrine of election and reprobation, held 
by some of the adherents of Calvin, has been a 



IO MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

stumbling-block for centuries in the way of some 
for not believing in the teachings of the Bible. 
They say, " Can God be partial ? and if so, it makes 
no difference what I do. If I am to be saved I will 
be saved, and if I am to be lost I will be lost, with- 
out any agency of mine in the matter." 

To all such casuists the author has endeavored to 
reconcile this difficulty, and trusts all who will read 
dispassionately the dissertation on " God's Sov- 
ereignty and Man's Free Agency" will accord his 
assent to the conclusions arrived at, viz., that man 
is a free agent, and therefore responsible for his 
acts, and that his salvation depends upon his choice 
and actions. 

There are others who see that there are incon- 
gruities in what is called the " Athanasian Creed," — 
of the Trinity of the Godhead, — which affirms that 
there are three distinct persons in the Godhead, and 
yet these three are one. 

To most minds who are accustomed to think 
closely there is an apparent incongruity in this 
statement of the creed. The Bible nowhere says 
that there are three separate persons in the Godhead, 
but one God with three hypostatic manifestations. 



INTR OD UCTION. 1 1 

This subject is treated under the caption of the 
" Trinity of the Deity/' to which the reader is re- 
ferred, in the hope that he may have his objections 
appeased by a somewhat different presentation of 
the mystery of the Godhead ; for we hold that there 
is no mystery revealed to us in the Bible which, by 
a proper study and with the illumination by God's 
Spirit, cannot be made plain to our comprehension. 
The Bible is God's Word ; God is truth itself; there- 
fore it must be consistent with itself, as all truth is so. 

Then, again, the modern materialist has revived 
the old hypothesis of the Hindoos and the Greeks 
that matter is eternal, and therefore there is no 
creator or first cause; that matter is the aggrega- 
tion of atoms brought together by chance, which 
by an inherent principle in themselves formed the 
worlds and established laws without a law-giver, and 
that there is no hereafter, that the soul dies with the 
body, and therefore death ends all. 

All those who hold such views are referred to 
the argument for the " Immortality of the Soul." 

But there is a still more subtle form of infidelity 
called " Agnosticism," which apparently admits the 
teachings of the Bible with mental reservation, and 



12 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

its followers may be called honest doubters, who 
would believe if they had the demonstration. It is 
to this class of persons particularly that the author 
of this little book earnestly hopes to render some 
service, by the blessing of God upon his feeble 
efforts in removing their honest doubts. 

There are some credulous minds that can believe 
almost anything upon plausible testimony ; to such 
Christ said, "Blessed are they who believe;" but 
there are some doubting Thomases whose minds 
are so constituted that they cannot believe without 
seeing for themselves. And this is not to be won- 
dered at in regard to spiritual truths, for the reason 
that some of the dogmas of the church are hard to 
reconcile with reason; and we hold that unless 
theology can be made to harmonize with reason, 
and science, and Scripture it is not truth, and the 
minds of thinking men will ever antagonize against 
a religion that is not consistent with reason ; it will 
not do any longer for theologians to demand faith 
inconsistent with reason. Faith soars above reason, 
but God does not require in us faith contrary to 
reason. 

The author has for years been impressed with 



INTRODUCTION. 



13 



the belief that there is a want existing of a hand- 
book setting forth in a concise though homely way 
the mooted doctrines held by the church, such 
as a layman can read in a short time and under- 
stand without having to spend years of severe and 
tedious reading of lengthy volumes, elaborately 
written by schoolmen, on the various themes of 
theology, for which few active business men have 
the inclination or the time. It is to supply this 
want, and with an earnest desire to induce this class 
of persons to consider these great questions for 
themselves, which are so intimately connected with 
their eternal destiny, that has induced the author to 
issue this little volume on the " Mysteries of Godli- 
ness," for which he bespeaks a candid and dispas- 
sionate reading. 

It is possible this book may fall into the hands 
of some theologian, who may find some views set 
forth therein which he will object to; but as the 
author is a layman writing to laymen, he indulges 
the hope he will not be judged too harshly, espec- 
ially when the critic is advised that it was written 
in such moments of time as he could seize from an 
active business life. 



14 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



ETERNITY. 

Eternity ! stupendous thought ! There is no 
word or thought, except Eternal God, that can be 
compared with* it in expanse of meaning or reach 
of thought. The finite mind, unaided by revelation, 
cannot comprehend it. The nearest approach ever 
made by human reason to it was by the ancient 
philosophers, who represented Eternity by a circle ; 
but this comes far short of conveying a correct idea 
of Eternity, for the least departure from the centre 
would be an equal advance towards the circumfer- 
ence. An infinite circle, with a centre everywhere 
and circumference nowhere, would better express it. 

The human mind alone, unaided by revelation, 
has never conceived the true idea of Eternity. 
Placed as man is on the earth, with its periodic revo- 
lutions marking time, it is exceedingly difficult for 
him to disassociate himself from its surroundings. 
If there were no earth, sun, moon, or heavenly 
bodies, there would be no measurement of time, 



ETERNITY. 15 



no past, no future, no years, no days, no moments 
of passing time, just as it was before the creation of 
the heavenly bodies, whose revolutions began the 
measurement of time. Beyond that the most remote 
period to the infinite mind might be considered as 
the present moment. There is no time with God but 
the ever-present now: "A day with Him is as a 
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 

When Moses was commissioned by God to go 
into Egypt and deliver the Israelites from bondage, 
he demanded of God that He should tell him what 
name he should give as his authority to act as their 
deliverer; then God out of the burning bush an- 
nounced to Moses His incommunicable name, "/ 
Am that I Am" (Ex. iii. 14), which implies His Self 
and Eternal existence. If there were no other evi- 
dence of the Divine origin of the Bible, this unique 
expression of His name would be sufficient. Again, 
in John vii. 58, we read that Jesus, in answering the 
cavils of the Jews concerning His oneness with the 
Father, uses like words in speaking of Himself: 
"Before Abraham was I Am!' Mark, He does not 
say before Abraham was I was, but " before Abra- 
ham was / Am!' And it is a noticeable fact that 



l6 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

Christ when speaking of Himself almost invariably 
uses the present tense. Keeping this in view, it 
will enable us to interpret many passages of Scrip- 
ture which otherwise would be inexplicable. The 
Prophets also frequently use the present tense in 
predicting events which were to occur hundreds of 
years in the future, as already being accomplished ; 
for instance, Isa. ix. 6, " For unto us a Child is born, 
unto us a Son is given ;" and many others might be 
adduced. 

In view of what we have said, we come to the 
conclusion that Eternity is an ever-present Now, 
and will not admit of a past or future, or else we 
are driven to the only alternative, that there was a 
Beginning and an End, for there could be no past 
without a future, no beginning without an end, and 
no end without a beginning. So, we repeat, the 
idea of an Infinite Now could only originate with 
an Infinite mind, and is beyond and above the con- 
ception of finite mind, and proves conclusively the 
Divine origin of the Bible. Let the skeptic cavil 
at it as much as he will, let him show in the annals 
of the human race where any people or race, un- 
aided by Revelation, even conceived the true idea 



ETERNITY. iy 

of Eternity. They have always associated in their 
minds a past and future. Such an idea as a present, 
without a past or a future, never entered into the 
mind of man, and never would have been but for 
the Revelation of God to man, as- in the announced 
name, " I Am that I Am." If, then, Eternity is an 
Infinite Now, as we think we have shown in the 
foregoing remarks, should it not finally put to rest 
the controversies of the present day about the end- 
less punishment of the wicked? Because, if Eter- 
nity is an ever-present Now, it of course follows, a 
priori, there can be no End. Consequently, if the 
wicked are punished at all, it must be endlessly. 

How should the thought of an Eternal, unchang- 
ing Holy God, "the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever," who cannot look upon sin with any degree 
of allowance, fill our souls with a profound sense of 
the majesty of His greatness and the perfection of 
His being, — the Supreme Ruler of the universe, 
who from His throne, surrounded with light inac- 
cessible and full of glory, beholding all the dwell- 
ers upon earth, supplying by His providential care 
all their needs, God over all, blessed forever ! As 
the profound Pascal has truly said, " God is the 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



centre of all, and to Him everything points, and he 
who knows Him not, knows nothing of the economy 
of this world and of himself. In Him is treasured 
up all our happiness, our virtue, our every life and 
light and hope; and out of Him there is nothing 
for us but sin, misery, darkness, and despair." 

The foregoing thoughts are beautifully expressed 
by the Poet : 

" O Thou Eternal One ! whose presence bright 

All space doth occupy, all motion guide ; 
Unchanged through Time's all-devastating flight; 

Thou only God ! There is no God beside ! 
Being above all beings ! Mighty One ! 

Whom none can comprehend and none explore ; 
Who fill'st existence with Thyself alone : 

Embracing all — supporting — ruling o'er — 

Being whom we call God — and know no more ! 
. . . What am I, then ? 
Naught ! Yet the effluence of Thy light divine, 

Pervading worlds, hath reached my bosom too ; 
Yes, in my spirit doth Thy Spirit shine, 

As shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew. 
Naught ! but I live, and on hope's pinions fly 

Eager toward Thy presence ; for in Thee 
I live, and breathe, and dwell, aspiring high, 

Even to the throne of Thy divinity. 

I am, O God ! and surely Thou must be !" 



TRINITY OF THE DEITY. 



19 



TRINITY OF THE DEITY. 

The doctrine of the Trinity of the Deity is a 
profound Mystery, and is inexplicable to the finite 
mind, and must ever remain so, for the reason that 
the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. Men 
have convened in council and formulated what is 
called the "Athanasian Creed," and as the result 
of their deliberations have given to the world the 
following utterances, viz. : " There is one person of 
the Father, another of the Son, and another of the 
Holy Ghost. 

"The Father is God and Lord, the Son is God 
and Lord, and the Holy Ghost is God and Lord ; 
but yet there are not three Gods and Lords, but 
one God and Lord ; because, as we are compelled 
by Christian verity to confess each person singly 
God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic 
religion to say three Gods or three Lords." 

Now it is evident from the apparent incongruities 
contained in this creed that its authors did not fully 



20 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

understand the subject, for they tell us there are 
three separate, distinct personalities in the Godhead, 
and yet these three are one, — a manifest incongruity, 
if not an absurdity. The Word of God does not 
teach that there are three distinct, separate person- 
alities in the Godhead, but One, the I Am (Jeho- 
vah) (Eph. iv. 4-6). " There is one body, and one 
Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all, who is 
above all, and through all, and in you all." That 
is, oneness with three essentials of nature, or with 
three Hypostatic manifestations, viz., Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit ; that is, three subsistences, not 
three Metaphysical existences ; for if there be three 
personal, metaphysical existences there must be 
three Gods, which is contrary to the plain teaching 
of the Scriptures. The passage in 1 John v. 7, 
" There are three that bear record in heaven, Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost," is conceded by the best 
Biblical scholars to be an interpolation (which in 
the revised version is omitted), and does not affect 
what we have said. Christ, when in the flesh, al- 
though having a dual nature, viz., the human and 
divine, was God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. iii. 
16), and we are told in Col. ii. 9, " In Him dwelt 



TRINITY OF THE DEITY. 2 l 

all the fulness of the Godhead Bodily." Christ, in 
speaking of His divinity to His disciples, tells them 
that " I and my Father are one" (John x. 30). John 
xiv. 8, 9: "Philip said unto him, Show us the Father 
and it sufficeth us." He replies, " Have I been so 
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known 
me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." 

These are words too plain to admit of any doubt 
as to His divinity. But some will say, Did not He 
use the term My Father, and your Father, My God, 
and your God, when speaking of Himself to His 
disciples ? Yes ; but it was His human speaking to 
His divine, as instanced in His prayers in Gethsem- 
ane, and in the agonies of the cross, when He broke 
forth in the exclamation, " My God, why hast thou 
forsaken me;" and after having accomplished His 
mediatorial work, Glorified His human (John xvii. 
5; xiii. 31, 32), and ascended to His throne of Glory, 
which He had with the Father before the foundation 
of the world. 

Now, although we may not be able fully to com- 
prehend the mystery of the Godhead, yet we may 
by the analogies in nature get a faint glimpse of 



22 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

God in His works ; for there is running through all 
the creation of God in nature an analogy with the 
spiritual, as St. Paul tells us in Rom. i. 20 : " For 
the invisible things of him from the creation of the 
world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made, even his eternal power and 
Godhead!' 

Now if we interpret invisible things to mean 
spiritual things, and things that are made material 
things, we see clearly that we can understand spirit- 
ual things by material things, and we shall see, if 
we examine into the nature of material things, a 
close analogy to spiritual things. 

Thus a few examples will show us that every 
perfect thing in nature which God has made is con- 
stituted of three elementary principles or laws, 
whether animate or inanimate. 

Beginning at the lowest order, that which is 
called inanimate matter, we have Solids, Fluids, 
Gas ; rising one step higher to what is called ani- 
mate nature, — the tree or fauna of the earth, — the 
trunk, sap, flower or fruit; ascending one step 
higher into the animal kingdom (man, for in- 
stance), Body, Soul, and Spirit ; then in the do- 



TRINITY OF THE DEITY. 



23 



main of Metaphysics (mental faculties), feeling, 
thought, and will. In sound there are three con- 
cordant chords, viz., fundamental, the third, and 
fifth, by the transposition of which all harmony is 
made. In color we find three primary colors, viz., 
Red, Yellow, and Blue, by the intermixture of which 
all colors are made. 

The atmosphere we breathe has a triplicity of 
elements, viz., Oxygen, Hydrogen, • and Nitrogen ; 
Electricity, Positive, Negative, and the Electric 
Spark. The whole universe is controlled by three 
forces, viz., Centripetal, Centrifugal, and Equilibrium, 
or Attraction, Repulsion, and Equilibrium. 

Thus we might go on multiplying analogies 
through all created things, showing there is a trinity 
in every thing in nature up to Nature's God. We sub- 
mit, do not the foregoing thoughts aid us in some 
measure to comprehend the Trinity of the Godhead ? 

Would it not be strange if God were not reflected 
in His works, and does not the Scripture we have 
quoted from — Rom. i. 20 — clearly teach us that we 
can understand the spiritual by material things, 
even somewhat of the mystery of the Trinity of the 
Godhead, — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ? 



24 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



We repeat, there is in the Trinity of the Godhead 
oneness, with three essentials of nature, or a trinity 
of Hypostatic Subsistences, corresponding to the 
constitution of man, viz., Body, Soul, and Spirit, 
which without either essential would not be man. 
Man cannot perform any act without the concur- 
rent function of the three essential elements of his 
nature. If we consider man in his spiritual nature 
we still have three essentials, viz., feeling, thought, 
and will ; without the concurrence of these three 
no action or result would follow and he would be a 
nonentity. 

Christ's method of imparting spiritual instruction 
to His disciples was by parables drawn from nature 
(Matt. xiii. 10, n): "And the disciples came, and 
said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in 
parables? He answered and said unto them, Be- 
cause it is given unto you to know the mysteries of 
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." 
And we hold that it is the privilege of every disciple 
of Christ to know the mysteries of Godliness if he 
applies himself to earnest and prayerful study of 
God's Word. " For whosoever hath, to him shall 
be given, and he shall have more abundance ; but 



TRINITY OF THE DEITY. 2 $ 

whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away- 
even that he hath." 

Prof. T. Christleib, of Bonn Theological Univer- 
sity (to whom we are under obligation for some of 
the thoughts in the foregoing article), has given an 
excellent summary of the Trinitarian doctrine of 
Scripture in his work on " Modern Doubt," which in 
closing this dissertation we copy verbatim : 

"The Trinitarian doctrine of Scripture is briefly 
this : The Father is simply God, the God, the divine 
Subject, the Source and well-spring of the Godhead, 
of both Son and Holy Spirit ; the Son is God, true 
God, in Hypostatic distinction, though derived from 
the Father; and the Spirit is also truly God, in a 
form which is predicated of the whole divine nature, 
for God is a Spirit (John iv. 24), and the Lord is the 
Spirit (2 Cor. iii. 17), but also in Hypostatic dis- 
tinction from the Father and the Son, by whom He 
is sent and from whom He proceeds. There is, 
therefore, at once the most essential unity and a 
threefold Hypostatic distinction. The divine nature 
remains undivided; the whole Godhead is in the 
Son, and in the Holy Spirit, — in the Son {Logos) as 
God's own self, utterance, and in the Spirit as the 



26 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

divine self-consciousness. And as the Son is the 
uttered thought of the Father concerning Himself, 
so it is again His office to speak out into the world 
the Father's thoughts of creation and redemption, 
and thus to stand to the creatures generally, and es- 
pecially to mankind, in an original archetypal rela- 
tion (John i. 4). And finally, as the Son is thus the 
archetypal and ideal principle of mediation between 
God and the world, of creation and of redemption, 
so the Holy Spirit is the real or efficient principle, 
affecting and individualizing all the creative and re- 
demptive energies of the Father and the Son, ap- 
plying, for instance, to each individual believer the 
Justification ideally (i.e., in the idea or thought of 
God) accomplished by the Son, and so effecting a 
real sanctifkation and regeneration (Eph. ii. 18; 
I Cor. xii. 3), in which process He takes, indeed, 
everything from the Son, the real and actual having 
always the ideal and transcendant for its ultimate 
eround and condition." 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 



2/ 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

Every thoughtful and observant mind must have 
noticed everywhere in nature a most marvellous, 
persistent struggle for life. We see this exemplified 
from the lowest form of life in nature to the highest. 
How tenaciously the lichen clings to the barren rock, 
or the sponge to the bottom of the sea. Ascending 
to the seed-germ, how careful has the Author of 
all life provided against the destruction of the life- 
germ by encasing the seed in a cyst or shell, as is 
seen in a grain of wheat, th,e acorn, or the chestnut. 
So securely is the life-germ protected that a grain of 
wheat enwrapped in the cerements of the mummy 
for three thousand years, when planted in the 
ground, has germinated and reproduced its kind as 
well as if it were only a year old. In the animal 
kingdom we see the same instinctive and persistent 
struggle for life. We notice, furthermore, that the 
lower animals are happy and satisfied in their condi- 
tion of life. They have all their instinctive cravings 



28 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

gratified, and are as happy and contented as it is 
possible to be in their sphere of life. 

Not so with man ; he is peculiar to himself, dis- 
contented and dissatisfied in this life, and if there be 
no life beyond, he is of all God's creatures most 
miserable. 

There is a universal aspiration in the breast of 
man for immortal life, whether Christian or pagan, 
as we see exemplified in the various races of man. 
The ancient Egyptians, believing in a future exist- 
ence of the soul after the death of the body, built 
Pyramids, and embalmed the body with great care, 
so that it might endure for ages, agreeably to their 
belief that the soul would after thousands of years 
return to the body. There is no doubt the Pharaohs 
built the Pyramids to serve as secure places of sep- 
ulture for the bodies of the kings. The sacrifices of 
the pagans to propitiate their idol gods prove their 
belief in the future existence. The untutored savage 
has his belief in his future hunting-grounds. So we 
say there is an innate belief in a future state of ex- 
istence which is universal to man, and we have 
Scripture for this assertion, as we read in Eccl. iii. 2, 
u God has set the world [i.e., Eternity] in our hearts," 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 29 

and, we repeat, if death ends all, man of all God's 
creatures is the most miserable, and his life is a 
failure, and of all the rest of God's creatures comes 
short of his expectations in not fulfilling his innate 
and instinctive aspirations, which would be a libel 
on his maker. For if all the other creatures of God 
are fulfilling their destiny to complete and perfect 
satisfaction, can it be possible that man, made in the 
image of his maker, should be the only exception in 
God's creation who should come short? Impos- 
sible ! It would be a libel on God's goodness and 
wisdom to suppose such an anomaly. Can it be 
possible that God has set in our hearts the idea of 
immortal life for the purpose of deceiving us ? The 
very thought of such a thing is blasphemy against 
God. 

It has been said that the sacred Scriptures do not 
give us any reliable information or positive proof of 
the immortality of the soul. This we hold to be a 
mistake. The Bible all through, from Genesis to 
Revelation, recognizes and treats of the spiritual 
world as an accepted reality, and, in fact, the only 
real reality is spirit life. " God (Spirit) created the 
Heavens and the Earth," as we have endeavored to 

3* 



30 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



show at length in our article on " Christ's Resur- 
rected Body,'* which the reader is referred to in this 
connection. But let us see if we cannot adduce 
some specific texts which will throw light more es- 
pecially on this subject. First, we make mention 
of that memorable occasion when Christ took with 
Him three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, 
as witnesses up the mountain where He was trans- 
figured, and there appeared Moses and Elijah, who 
conversed with Him concerning His decease, which 
He was to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now, is this 
not a positive proof of the immortality of the soul ? 
Moses and Elijah had been dead many centuries 
before this appearance on the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion, and yet we are told by three reliable witnesses 
that they conversed with Christ, and were recog- 
nized as the veritable Moses and Elijah, — Moses as 
the representative of the Law, Elijah the representa- 
tive of the Prophets, and Christ the fulfilment of the 
Law and the Prophets ; all three in consultation con- 
cerning the great work of salvation being wrought 
out through Jesus Christ. Here we have a remark- 
able instance of the natural and the spiritual worlds 
in conjunction. Will any one say this was a myth ? 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 31 

Again, in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus 
Christ lifts the veil which separates the natural 
world from the spiritual world, and gives us a pic- 
ture of the condition of Dives and Lazarus as the 
representatives of the two classes of which man- 
kind are composed, viz., the wicked and the Right- 
eous ; how one class are happy and the other class 
are miserable. Will any one have the hardihood to 
say this picture of the' spiritual world is a myth, 
being told to us for the purpose of working on our 
fears, and deceiving us as regards a future state of 
existence ? 

Furthermore, we read in John xiv. 2, that Christ, 
just before His departure from the world, told His 
disciples, who were sorrowful on account of what 
He had informed them, that He was soon to leave 
them ; comforts them with these words, " Let not 
your hearts be troubled; in my Father's house are 
many mansions : if it were not so I would have told 
you." He did not tell them to the contrary, there- 
fore it must be so. 

Furthermore, we are told in 2 Tim. i. 10, that 
" Christ hath brought life and immortality to light." 
All who believe in the divinity of Christ must ac- 



32 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

knowledge His authority to speak of Eternal veri- 
ties, coming as He did from His throne of glory, 
which He had with the Father before the world was 
created; and manifesting Himself in the flesh and 
dwelling among men as a Teacher sent from God 
to teach men the verities of the immortal life be- 
yond, surely His authority cannot be gainsaid. 
Now, unless Christ was not qualified to speak of 
Eternal things, or that He did not speak the truth, 
which few (even who do not believe He is divine) 
will have the hardihood to affirm, we must accept 
His statement as the truth, or reject Him altogether 
as untrustworthy and a deceiver. 

And yet, strange as it is, the great majority of 
mankind live and act as if there were no future life. 
Men are so engrossed in the affairs of this sensuous 
world that they do not think there is anything be- 
yond that which their natural senses take in. They 
" do not like to retain God in their knowledge ;" 
therefore we fear, as the apostle Paul said of the 
Romans, God will give them over to a Reprobate 
mind. " Oh, that men were wise, that they would 
consider their latter end" before it be everlastingly 
too late ! " If a man die shall he live again," is one 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, 33 

of the most important questions that should engage 
the attention of man ; and we think we have demon- 
strated in the foregoing argument that the soul is 
immortal, and does live after the death of the body, 
either in a state of perfect bliss or misery, according 
to the character (which is all he takes with him to 
the other life) which he builds up here, and that char- 
acter is permanent, as is plainly exemplified in the 
parable of Dives and Lazarus heretofore alluded to. 
And now, dear reader, let me remind you God 
has set before you life and death; there is no es- 
caping this dilemma; either one or the other you 
are bound to choose, however indifferent you may 
be as regards your immortal destiny. Whatsoever 
things you sow you shall also reap, is an inevitable 
law of the natural and the spiritual worlds. " God 
would have all men to be saved ;" and we read in 
I John v. 11, " God has given to us eternal life, and 
that life is in his Son." This is life eternal, that 
they may know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou 
hast sent. So we see that Eternal life is the free 
gift of God, and it only remains for us to receive it 
by faith in the finished work of Christ, wrought out 
on the cross on Calvary. 



34 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



I entreat you, dear reader, to ponder over this 
subject of momentous issue. Accept Christ and 
gain immortal life, reject Christ and gain immortal 
death. 

We read only of two declarations Christ will 
enunciate at the great day of Judgment : " Come ye 
blessed," " depart ye cursed ;" there is no neutral 
ground to take. Christ says, " He that is not for 
me is against me." Suppose, for argument sake, 
that there is no hereafter, no life beyond, no 
Heaven, no Hell, that death ends all, that man 
dies like the beasts that perish, will not the believer 
in a future state of existence be as well off as the 
unbeliever ? But if the converse be true, then, — and 
then, — oh, my God, what then ! ! ! 



ORIGINAL SIN. 



35 



ORIGINALSIN. 

Original sin means simply the first sin. It is this 
first sin that was committed by our first parents in 
the garden of Eden that has caused so much dis- 
turbance in the moral world, and it has been an 
enigma ever since, and the subject has engaged the 
attention of the best minds in theological thought, 
without as yet arriving at a satisfactory solution of 
the problem, Why did God permit evil in the world ? 

We will now see if we can throw any light on this 
dark problem. In the first place, we would remark 
that God did not create evil, but that it was a result 
incidental to man's state of free agency ; so if God 
did not create evil He is not the author of it, for 
evil, like darkness, is a nonentity. God created light, 
but not darkness, for darkness is nothing but the 
absence of light. 

But some will say, Did not God know that man 
would fall into sin when He placed him in the gar- 
den ? Yes, but that does not make God the author 



36 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

of man's sin, no more than the maker of Guiteau's 
pistol was the author of Guiteau's crime. Besides, 
God warned Adam and Eve of the consequences 
that would follow any disobedience of His com- 
mands, and they having the choice of good and evil 
were responsible for their actions. 

But why did not God make man incapable of 
choosing evil? We answer, Because if He had 
done so He could not have made man a free moral 
being, and then He could not have fulfilled the con- 
dition of man in the moral creation. The idea of 
man being a free moral agent without having the 
power of choice is not conceivable ; it is this free- 
dom of will which gives him the pre-eminence over 
the lower orders of God's creation, and lifts man up 
into conjunction and fellowship with God, thereby 
rendering him fit for companionship with God and 
capable of reciprocal affection ; for how could there 
be reciprocity of love without free will ? Love that 
is not spontaneous is not much esteemed. So we 
say that evil came into the world incidentally with 
man's freedom of will, and if man chooses to exer- 
cise his will in an evil direction it is not God's fault, 
because He gave him the power to choose between 



ORIGINAL SIN. 37 



good and evil. This subject is more fully treated 
under the caption of " God's Sovereignty and Man's 
Free Agency," to which the reader is referred. 

Whatever may be the result of man's arguments 
concerning the admission of evil, the lamentable fact 
is universally admitted that evil does exist in the 
world in all its hideous forms. 

Let us now address ourselves to the consideration 
of the consequences resultant from the transgression 
of God's commands. God gave permission to Adam 
to eat of the fruit of every tree in the Garden except 
one ; but unfortunately he was not content until he 
had eaten of all the trees in the Garden. Gen. ii. 16, 
17 : " And the Lord God commanded the man, say- 
ing, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely 
eat ; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 

Adam and Eve did eat of the tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil, and this was the first sin that 
was committed in the world, and which has entailed 
so much misery on their descendants, and will con- 
tinue to the end of time. 

We see here that Adam's sin was disobedience to 
4 



38 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



God's commands, and it is a fact which every parent 
has noticed that the first sin his child commits is 
disobedience to his commands, and, in fact, it is 
the essence of all sin. This innate disposition to 
disobey superior authority is that which we inherit 
from Adam, and is what Theologians have called 
" Human depravity." Some say total depravity. 
Now, in order to enforce obedience it was necessary 
that laws should be established and penalties pre- 
scribed for the violation of law. God is a God of 
order, and there could be no order in man's condition 
of free will if there were no law to regulate that 
will, for the world has had demonstration that if 
man's selfish will be not curbed by law he would 
run riot in all manner of excess. 

Another element in. this sin of Adam we notice 
is selfishness. He had permission to eat of the fruit 
of all the trees in the garden except One. Ah, there 
it is, that One forbidden fruit. He must have all, 
not because he needed it, but only because his selfish 
heart desired it, and so it has been ever since. Man 
is not satisfied by having all that is required to 
make him happy, but he must have all he wishes, 
and that he never gets in this life, for Diogenes 



ORIGINAL SIN. 



39 



would have to search longer with his lighted candle 
to find a perfectly contented man than to find an 
honest one. Alexander (whom the world calls 
great) was not content when he had conquered the 
world, but was made actually miserable because he 
had no more worlds to gain. It would be well for 
all covetous people to consider Christ's proposition, 
" What doth it profit a man if he should gain the 
whole world and lose his soul, or what shall a man 
give in exchange for his soul?" 

It was for the purpose of checking this disposition 
in man to covet his neighbor's goods that God put 
in the tables of the moral law the tenth command- 
ment : " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, 
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his 
man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor 
his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." (Ex. 
xx. 17.) 

We will now notice the penalty that was to follow 
upon the disobedience of God's commands, viz., 
" For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
surely die." 

There have been two ways of explaining this pas- 
sage, " in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 



40 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

surely die." It is well known that Adam did not die 
for several hundred years after he had eaten of the 
forbidden fruit; but some say that Adam became 
mortal on the day he sinned, and that if he had not 
sinned he would have been immortal, and that there 
would have been no death in the moral creation. 
But this notion cannot be correct, for geologists tell 
us that death did reign before Adam's fall. Further- 
more, if it were not for death the Race would be- 
come so numerous in a few hundred years that the 
earth coulcf not contain the people that would be 
born without crowding one another into the sea. 

Again, this notion does not fully come up to the 
letter of the penalty, " in the day that thou eatest 
thou shalt die" when it is known he lived some 
hundreds of years afterward, and the earth had be- 
come largely populated with his descendants before 
he died. So we do not think that the penalty was 
mortal death. 

The other notion held by some as to the kind of 
death that is meant (and which we think is the cor- 
rect one) is spiritual death. " In the day that thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." And so he 
did; the very moment he committed sin he died 



ORIGINAL SIN. 



41 



spiritually, — i.e., " dead in sin," as the Scriptures 
describes all sinners as being " dead in trespasses 
and sin ;" and this is a more direful state to be in 
than to be under the sentence of mortal death, for 
the one pertains to this life only, while the other 
pertains to eternity. We will see this point more 
clearly when we contrast Adam's condition in Para- 
dise and Adam's condition out of Paradise. 

The whole race of Adam is comprised in two 
classes, viz., " dead in sin" and " alive unto God." 
While Adam was in Paradise he was alive unto God. 
How intimate his relations to God were while he 
was innocent of sin ! How sweet the fellowship 
must have been when holding converse and com- 
munion with God, his Father, in the cool of the 
evening, daily, in the shady bowers of Eden, in 
blissful innocence enjoying the society of God, talk- 
ing face to face with God, as a friend talketh with a 
friend ! But oh, how changed his relations after he 
had committed sin ! Then we see him skulking away 
and hiding himself from God in conscious guilt, 
fearing to meet Him, as he was wont to do, in the 
cool of the evening in friendly, social intercourse. 
What has produced this change? Why afraid of 



42 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



God now ? Ah, the truth must be told : Adam and 
Eve had sinned, and they were ashamed now to 
meet God, and, as is always the case with the sin- 
ner, he resorts to various futile subterfuges to hide 
his sins. He is ashamed now forsooth to meet 
God, " for I was naked." He did not know he was 
naked before he had sinned ; while in a state of un- 
conscious innocence there was no cause for shame, 
for there was nothing to be ashamed of. But as 
soon as he had fallen into sin, then he had abundant 
cause for shame. And is not this always the case 
with every sinner, until he becomes so habituated to 
sin as to lose all shame ? The boy who chokes at 
the utterance of his first oath, if it be persisted in 
for a few years, will learn to swear with as much 
facility and as little shame as a parrot. Dear reader, 
let me warn you against the mere beginning of any 
evil habit ; for it is habit that forms character, and 
character makes the man. 

Again, there is an element of meanness in Adam's 
sin. He has not the manliness to acknowledge his 
guilt, but tries to shift the blame of it on another : 
hear his mean excuse, " The woman whom thou 
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I 



ORIGINAL SIN. 



43 



did eat." Then, again, when the " Lord God said 
unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done ? 
And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and 
I did eat." Here is human nature with all its mean- 
ness come down to us from Adam; and who does 
not know how prone we all are, when convicted of a 
fault, to charge the blame of it on some one else ; 
and if that will not do we are sure to put the blame 
on the " Old Serpent !" Well, while we are free to 
admit the serpent may beguile us, we do not admit 
that we are compelled to yield to his seductions, for 
the reason that we are free agents, and we have it in 
our power to " resist the Devil, and he will flee from 
us;" and we can say to him, as Christ did, "Get thee 
behind me, Satan." Satan has no more power over 
us than that which we choose to give him by yield- 
ing to our own lusts. St. James tells us " Every 
man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own 
lust and enticed." 

We wish just here to put in a disclaimer of the 
old theological dogma that in Adam's fall the whole 
race became totally depraved and impotent, for if 
that be the case man would be beyond recovery, 
and there would be no use to try to "resist the Devil," 



44 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



as we are enjoined to do. We inherit from Adam a 
depraved nature and a predisposition to evil, " we 
are prone to evil as the sparks to fly upwards," but 
not so totally depraved as to be incapable of making 
any effort to overcome our evil propensities, for we 
are enjoined in the Scriptures to "overcome evil with 
good," and, again, " cease to do evil and learn to do 
well." Now these injunctions would be sheer mock- 
ery if man had no power in himself to obey these 
injunctions. But a man may become so depraved 
by evil habits, so utterly under the control of his 
sensuous lusts, so enslaved to his carnal appetites as 
to render himself morally incapable of resisting the 
temptations of his besetting sins. " Ephraim is joined 
to his idols, let him alone." When a man gets into 
this state then he becomes totally depraved. 

Another old-time notion which we wish to disclaim 
is, viz., that we are held responsible for Adam's sin ; 
that if we had no sin of ourselves to answer for we 
would be judged for Adam's sin and consigned to 
perdition. This is horrible to think of, yet it is a 
doctrine which was formerly preached, but now hap- 
pily discarded. The idea of infants dying before 
coming to years of discretion, not knowing good 



ORIGINAL SIN, 45 



from evil, going to hell for Adam's sin is revolting 
to all our finer sensibilities, and has no warrant in 
Scripture. We shall be judged for our own sins 
" according to the deeds done in the body, whether 
they be good or bad," but not for Adam's sin, much 
less for infants' unconscious sins, " for as in Adam 
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 
Christ's atonement is complete satisfaction for Adam's 
sin. 

We will now consider Adam's condition out of 
Paradise, and what a lamentable difference there is 
between his condition in Paradise and out of Para- 
dise. As we have already seen, before he fell into 
sin he was as happy as he could be, enjoying the 
sweet delights of Eden in blissful innocence, in daily 
communion with God, his maker, having all his 
heart could wish ; but now look at him : after his 
fall he was turned out of Paradise, dishonored of 
God and disgraced. We read the sad story in Gen. 
iii. 22, 24 : " And the Lord God said, Behold the 
man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: 
and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of 
the tree of life, and eat, and live forever : Therefore 
the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of 



46 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. 
So he drove out the man ; and he placed at the east 
of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming 
sword, which turned every way to keep the way of 
the tree of life." 

Here we have depicted before us the baleful con- 
sequences of sin. And it is always so with every 
sinner; it separates from God; for there is no fel- 
lowship with holiness and sin, with Christ and 
Belial; light and darkness cannot exist together; 
therefore Adam and Eve are thrust out of Paradise 
and degraded to the dust, and " sent forth to till the 
ground from whence they were taken." And the 
sentence is, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it 
wast thou taken ; for dust thou art, and unto dust 
shalt thou return." And this is what comes of 
listening to the wiles of the Devil. "Yea, hath God 
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. 
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat 
of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the 
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden 
God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it ; neither shall 
ye touch it lest ye die. And the serpent said unto 



ORIGINAL SIN. 



47 



the woman, Ye shall not surely die : for God doth 
know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes 
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing 
good and evil." Yes, the devil told one fact inci- 
dentally, viz., their eyes were opened, and they knew 
for the first time what evil was to their bitter expe- 
rience; and with this experience came conscience; 
for there could be no conscience until they knew 
the difference between good and evil. 

Again, after God had expelled Adam and Eve 
from the garden, " He placed at the east of the gar- 
den of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword, which 
turned every way to keep the way of the tree of 
life." 

Here we see in this picture God's Justice repre- 
sented by a flaming sword, which turned every way 
to guard His Holiness from the intrusion of all that 
is sinful and unholy; for into His presence can enter 
" nothing that defileth or maketh a lie," as was in- 
stanced in the Tabernacle, " Holy of Holies." We 
learn also from this incident the sure retribution 
(Nemesis) that follows on the track of every sin. 
God's sword of vengeance turns every way, and 
there is no escaping its double edge, which "piercing 



48 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and 
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart." God is holy, and 
He cannot look upon sin with any degree of allow- 
ance, and we may " be sure our sin will find us out." 
We have seen how futile were the attempts of Adam 
and Eve to cover up their shameful sin with fig- 
leaves, for " all things are open and naked to Him 
with whom we have to do." 

Now let us look at the Mercy of God, and we will 
see the marvellous Grace which is displayed in this 
narrative of the fall. No sooner had man fallen from 
his pristine state of holiness and innocence than God 
interposed His Grace for his recovery in the Re- 
demptive scheme. The seed of the woman who had 
listened to the seductive words of the wily tempter 
was to crush his head. So in due time Christ was 
born of a woman, and "came into the world to 
destroy the works of the Devil." And in Christ 
we have forgiveness and plenteous Redemption. 
Blessed be God ! He has given us plenteous Re- 
demption by the Vicarious sacrifice of His Son Jesus 
Christ, and recovered man from the spiritual death 
into which he had fallen by original sin, and lifted 



ORIGINAL SIN. 4g 



man up again to that fellowship and conjunction 
with God which he had before the fall. But of 
course this restoration only pertains to those who 
by a living faith in Christ's merits and sacrifice rely 
wholly upon Him for their salvation. " For the 
wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal 
life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. vi. 23); 
and, again, " And this is life eternal, that they might 
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom thou hast sent." (John xvii. 3.) 

So we see, dear reader, there is no need to distress 
ourselves about Adam's sin, but our own; for we 
can get back all and more than was lost by the fall 
if we will simply cling to the cross of Christ, for in 
Him we have forgiveness and plenteous redemption, 
— Paradise lost, Paradise regained. 



5o MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



ATONEMENT. 

The atonement is the mystery of all mysteries. 
It is the one thing the Angels in heaven are deeply 
interested in, for we read in I Peter i. that the 
Apostle, in speaking of the great salvation in Christ 
which was foretold by the prophet, and " which they 
had inquired and searched diligently, who prophe- 
sied of the grace that should come unto them: 
Searching what, or what manner of time the spirit 
of Christ which was in them did signify, when it 
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the 
glory that should follow. Unto whom it was re- 
vealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they 
did minister the things which are now reported unto 
you by them that have preached the gospel unto 
you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ; 
which things the angels desire to look into!' 

Now if the holy angels are so interested in this 
great and all-absorbing subject as to " desire to look 
into" the same, surely it is a subject that we should 



ATONEMENT. 



51 



desire to contemplate, especially as we are the sub- 
jects of this great salvation which so interests the 
inhabitants of heaven. 

Sometimes the etymology of words assists us in 
getting a clearer idea of the subject than we could 
get in any other way. The word " atonement" is 
made up of three syllables, viz., at-one-ment; the 
latter is derived from the Latin mens, — i.e., the mind ; 
so the primary meaning is at one mind, showing us 
by the etymology of the word that there has been 
some estrangement of mind to require an atonement 
or reconciliation. 

Now this estrangement took place in the garden 
of Eden, when Adam and Eve committed the first 
transgression against God's commands, which is 
commonly called the "fall of man," because prior 
to this man was in communion and fellowship with 
God, — i.e., of one mind. But as soon as he had 
sinned that oneness of mind, that comity of feeling, 
was disrupted, and the carnal heart of man became 
" enmity against God ;" and, as a consequence, he 
was driven out of Paradise as a vagabond upon the 
face of the earth, dishonored and disgraced, and by 
nature ever since rebellious. 



52 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



Now there was an insuperable breach made by 
man's fall ; can it be that the devil should gain the 
ascendancy over God's fairest moral creation, made 
in His own likeness, to be recipients of God's love, 
and he in turn to reciprocate that love ? What can 
the material creation render to God but a dumb obe- 
dience ? The sun, moon, and stars praise Him, but 
there is no intelligent, conscious affection in them 
answerable to God's nature, whose essence is intelli- 
gent love. 

How then can the breach be healed ? How can 
man be restored to God's favor ? How can man be 
Just before God ? This is the question which en- 
gages the attention of the angels in heaven, and 
which they " desire to look into" with such absorb- 
ing interest. If it be not irreverent, we might depict 
in our imagination the Godhead in council concern- 
ing man's fall, and the means to be employed for his 
recovery, and the holy angels bending over with 
intense interest to see what plan was to be devised 
to redeem man from his ruined condition, when 
they overhear the Saviour say, " Lo, I come to do 
thy will, O God." So, when there was " no eye to 
pity and no arm to save," God, out of the pure en- 



A TONEMENT. 



53 



ergy of His love, gave Himself a ransom in the 
person of Jesus Christ, who, in the fulness of time, 
offered Himself a sacrifice for man's crime, and the 
problem of man's redemption was solved. Thus 
God can "be Just, and the Justifier of him who 
believeth in Jesus." Here is a scheme which only- 
infinite Love and Wisdom could devise, and which 
angels and men wonder at, and will continue to do 
so until the secrets of God are revealed. 

Concerning this scheme of Redemption, the great 
and puzzling question has. been and is still objected 
to by the skeptic, viz., the innocent suffering for the 
guilty. They say, Can this be just?. To this ques- 
tion we can only say that it is an unfathomable mys- 
tery, and can only answer, God has so appointed. 
Turn which way we will we are confronted with 
mysteries in nature. We cannot tell why it is that 
an acorn and a grain of wheat, having both the 
same constituent elements, how it is that the one 
should produce the towering oak, and the other a 
stalk of wheat. We can only say that God hath so 
appointed that the acorn should produce the oak, 
and the grain of wheat its kind, — " every seed his 
own body." 

5* 



54 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



We see, also, all through the moral and the Phys- 
ical creation this law of sacrifice, wherein the inno- 
cent suffer for the guilty to subserve some good end. 
We plough and harrow up the ground " that it may 
give seed to the sower and bread to the eater ;" the 
smaller animals' lives are sacrificed to supply suste- 
nance for the larger, and all are subservient to man 
for food and raiment. How often innocent children 
are called to suffer for the intemperate habits of their 
parents, wives for their husbands and husbands for 
their wives, and parents for their froward children ; 
all these, and, in fact, all the ills of this life, are 
traceable to sin, and in the divine economy and in 
the nature of things call for sacrifice on the part of 
the innocent for the guilty, perhaps the only solu- 
tion for which may be found in " final causes." 

Having briefly stated the occasion of and the 
reason for an atonement, we will now consider the 
various aspects in which the Scriptures speak of the 
redemptive scheme. 

The first feature we will notice is that Christ gave 
Himself up to die for our sins. We will quote some 
passages of Scripture bearing on this point: Rom. 
v. 6, 8, " When we were yet without strength, in due 



ATONEMENT. 55 



time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a 
righteous man will one die : yet peradventure for a 
good man some would even dare to die. But God 
commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we 
were yet sinners Christ died for us." John xv. 12, 13, 
" This is my commandment, that ye love one another 
as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than 
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." 
Rom. viii. 32, " He that spared not His own Son, but 
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with 
Him also freely give us all things?" 1 Tim. ii. 56, 
"There is one God, and one Mediator between God 
and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a 
ransom for all." 

I Peter iii. 18, " Christ also hath once suffered for 
sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us 
to God." John iii. 16, "Thereby perceive we the 
love of God, because He laid down His life for us." 
We might quote more passages to show that Christ 
died for our sins, but this will suffice. 

We will next adduce some passages of Scripture 
to show that Christ died as our substitute, that is, in 
our stead. Death was the penalty that was to be 
inflicted on the sinner, but Christ assumed it in our 



56 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

place. Matt. xx. 28, " The Son of Man is come, not 
to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His 
life a ransom for many." 1 Tim. ii. 6, " He gave 
Himself a ransom for all." 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, "The 
love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge 
that if one died for all, then all died." Gal. iii. 13, 
" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is 
every one that hangeth on a tree." 1 Peter iii. 18, 
"Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the 
unjust, that He might bring us unto God." Isa. liii. 
58, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was 
bruised for our iniquities ; for the transgression of my 
people was He stricken." Thus it is plain from these 
few passages (out of many that might be quoted) that 
Christ died for us as our substitute, and that if He 
had not died for us no one could be saved. 

We will now quote some passages of Scripture 
which speak of Christ as bearing our sins, and as 
" made sin," and made a curse for us. We have seen 
by the foregoing passages we have quoted that Christ 
died for us ; it therefore follows as a corollary that 
He must have assumed our sins, therefore He is 
called in Scripture our sin-bearer. 



ATONEMENT. 



S7 



We will only quote a few of this class, as the Scrip- 
tures abound with passages which represent Christ 
as "Bearing- our Sins." Thus we read in the Old 
Testament that it was prophesied by Isaiah, hundreds 
of years before Christ came into the world, that He 
would bear our sins. Isa. liii. 6, 1 1, 12, " The Lord 
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all;" "by His 
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, 
for He shall bear their iniquities ;" " He was numbered 
with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many!' 
Now if we turn to the New Testament we see almost 
the same words used as by Isaiah. Heb. ix. 28, 
" Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." 
1 Peter ii. 24, " Who His own self bare our sins in 
His own body on the tree." 

There are many more passages in the Scriptures 
which speak of Christ as bearing our sins, but this 
will suffice to show this feature of the atonement. 

Now, in what sense are we to understand that 
Christ did bear our sins f Was it out of sympathy 
for fallen man ? or was it in the sense of sorrow for 
the penalty that was to be inflicted upon the sinner ? 

We think that there was an element of both sym- 
pathy and sorrow, on account of the penalty which 



58 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

entered into this sin-bearing of Christ. For it must 
have been pure unalloyed sympathy which moved 
God, out of compassion for us in our helpless, fallen 
condition, to send His Son Jesus Christ into the world, 
and assuming our nature, " Made of a Woman." He 
became a man like one of us, that He might put Him- 
self under all our conditions of existence, thereby real- 
izing our infirmities; for He was tempted in all points 
as we are, "that He might know how to succor those 
that are tempted," having " a fellow feeling for us." 
Surely this implies sympathy and compassion. Then, 
again, this compassion for us prompted " Him to bear 
our sins in His own body on the cross," suffering 
the penalty of our sins in our stead ; that is, He 
became our burden-bearer, the heavy load of guilt 
that would have crushed us He in compassion for 
us lifted from us and bore it for us. Here is an ex- 
hibition of sympathy and compassion such as the 
world has never seen before or since, and should 
call forth our gratitude to God for such unmeasured 
favor in our behalf. 

Again, we read in 2 Cor. v. 21, that "He hath 
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 



ATONEMENT. 



59 



By the expression, " He hath made Him to be sin 
for us/' we are not to understand that Christ was 
" made si?i J in the abstract sense ; for that would be 
contradictory to the latter part of the sentence, "who 
knew no sin ;" but we are to read it metaphorically, 
that is, in the sense that He was appointed to bear 
the burden of our sin, and to suffer the consequent 
penalty of sin. As St. Paul expresses it in Gal. iii. 
13, " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the 
law, being made a curse for us." 

Here we see clearly the vicarious sacrifice of 
Christ, who was innocent of sin, suffering for the 
guilty, " that we might be made the righteousness 
of God in Him;" that is, the righteousness that was 
in Him was imputed to us, who by faith in His 
merits trust in Him for deliverance from " the curse 
of the law, He being made a curse for us" by sub- 
stitution. 

We will now quote another class of passages, 
which speak of the remission of sins and deliver- 
ance from their penal consequences by the death of 
Christ. 

Our Lord Jesus, just before His death on the 
cross, instituted the Lord's Supper, and at this sup- 



6o MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

per, with His disciples, in administering the cup, 
uses this language (Matt. xxvi. 28) : " This is my 
blood of the new testament which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins," using the cup of red wine 
as an emblem of His blood, which He was about to 
shed for the remission of the sins of the world. It 
is hard to conceive how the Romish Church should 
so misconstrue this saying of Christ in their doctrine 
of Transubstantiation of the Eucharist in giving it a 
literal meaning, the absurdity of which is at once 
apparent when we consider that Christ used these 
words, " This is my blood of the new testament 
which is shed for many for the remission of sins," 
before He actually had shed His blood on the cross. 
How, I ask, can it be possible that the cup which 
He handed to His disciples did really contain His 
blood when He had not as yet shed it f 

Again, we read in 1 John i. 9, that " If we confess 
our sins, He is faithful and Just to forgive us our sins 
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness ;" and also, 
1 John ii. 1, 2, " If any man sin we have an advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He 
is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only 
but also for the sins of the whole world." 



ATONEMENT. 6 1 



Now we see in this passage quoted that by 
Christ's sacrificial death there is ample provision 
made for deliverance, from the penalty due our sins, 
and not for ours only but also for the sins of the 
whole world, upon the condition that we confess our 
sins. Confession, which implies true repentance, is 
essential to forgiveness. It is well to remember this, 
for many think as the Universalists do, that Christ's 
mediatorial death made full provision for a universal 
salvation, for which notion there is no warrant in 
Scripture. The Scriptures all through insist upon 
Confession, Repentance, and faith in Christ as the 
only ground of forgiveness and hope of salvation ; 
this is clearly seen by what Paul says in Rom. viii. 
I, 3, 4: "There is now no condemnation to them 
that are in Christ Jesus -." " For what the law could 
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, 
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh 
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the 
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who 
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit." 

Thus we see that Christ's mediatorial sacrifice is 
only available for those that are in Christ Jesus; 
that is to say, they who are united to Him by a 



62 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

living faith, and trust in His vicarious sacrifice for 
their salvation ; to them there is no condemnation, 
for Christ bore the condemnation of our sins for us, 
for we were impotent to fulfil the requirements of 
the law by reason of our fallen nature; therefore 
God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, who 
fulfilled the demands of the law in our stead ; and 
the righteousness which He fulfilled was imputed to 
us, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit, 
He having paid the penalty which our sins incurred. 
Another class of passages of Scripture which we 
will notice speaks of Christ's death as a ground of 
Justification and Redemption. The first of this class 
we quote from is Isa. liii. 2 : " By His knowledge shall 
my righteous servant Justify many, for He shall bear 
their iniquities." Also Rom. v. 8, 9 : " God com- 
mendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us; much more then, 
being how Justified by His blood, we shall be saved 
from wrath through Him." Also Rom. iii. 24, 26 : 
" Being Justified freely by the grace of God through 
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God 
hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in 
His blood, to declare His righteousness, that He 



A TONEMENT. 



63 



might be Just, and the Justifier of him who believeth 
in Jesus." 

There is very little difference between forgiveness 
and justification, and yet there is a nice distinction 
to be drawn between them : forgiveness implies that 
there is an accusation brought and trial had, and 
conviction obtained and sentence passed, and for 
which forgiveness is besought and confession of 
guilt made; but even when the crime is forgiven 
the guilt still remains, although the criminal is for- 
given or pardoned. 

Justification is a judicial term which implies that 
there has been an accusation made of crime, and 
the criminal is arraigned in court for trial, and the 
Judge, after hearing the statements of the cause, 
acquits the person as charged in the indictment, and 
he is liberated and discharged as innocent of the 
crime charged against him, and declared Justified 
before the law without condemnation. 

Now Christ having borne our iniquities and de- 
livered us from the wrath consequent upon our in- 
iquities, has by His grace freely Justified us, "by 
His blood through the redemption, that is in Christ 
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation 



64 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

through faith in His blood, to declare His righteous- 
ness, that He might be Just and the Justifier of him 
who believeth in Jesus," that " By the righteousness 
of one the free gift came upon all men unto Justifi- 
cation, and by the obedience of one shall many be 
made righteous." So we see that by the obedience 
of Christ in satisfying the demands of the law by 
making a propitiation for us, we by faith in Christ's 
mediatorial sacrifice have redemption and remission 
of all past sins, " being accounted unto Him for 
righteousness," as our substitute. 

We would remark here that by faith we are justi- 
fied and receive pardon of all past sins, but it does 
not include future voluntary sins, as some think, for 
there would be no use in our Lord's Prayer of the 
petition " Forgive us our debts" if all future volun- 
tary sins were included in Justification. It is only 
while we continue in a lively exercise of faith that 
we are accounted righteous before God. And if we 
should relapse into unbelief then " there remaineth 
no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for 
of judgment and fiery indignation," so that as long 
as we are in a state of probation we should " watch 
and pray that we enter not into temptation," " and 



ATONEMENT. 65 



should look to ourselves that we lose not the things 
we have gained." 

We will quote a few passages of Scripture which 
speak of Reconciliation to God by the death of 
Christ, and which represent His death as a propitia- 
tion for sin. 

First we quote from 2 Cor. v. 18, 19, 20: "All 
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Him- 
self by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the min- 
istry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in 
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not im- 
puting their trespasses unto them ; and hath com- 
mitted unto us the word of reconciliation. Now 
then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God 
did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God." 

Reconciliation implies that there are two parties 
at variance or in disagreement, and in order to bring 
about perfect agreement one or both of the parties 
must be conciliated, and then they are said to be 
reconciled to one another; this is called reconcilia- 
tion. 

Now the passages which we have quoted from 

(2 Cor. v.) represent God as in the attitude of recon- 

e 6* 



66 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

riling His enemies unto Himself by Jesus Christ, 
and if there were no other passages which speak 
of God as being " angry with the wicked" we would 
have to conclude that man is the only party to be 
reconciled. Anger or revenge in the abstract sense 
is not to be imputed to God, for God is unchange- 
able and rules all things in undisturbed composure. 
But, speaking after the manner of men, there is a 
sense in which the Bible speaks of His wrath and 
anger (not that kind of wrath or anger which we 
poor weak mortals feel, and which so much disturbs 
our equilibrium). But as God is a person, it is con- 
ceivable that He has emotions somewhat akin to 
ours, but free from any element of hatred or revenge. 
It cannot but be that when He looks down from 
His throne of holiness upon the wickedness of 
His rebellious children He is moved with dis- 
pleasure, for " He cannot look upon sin with any 
degree of allowance;" and also when He sees His 
.believing children striving to overcome the evil 
temptations that beset them and live lives of holi- 
ness and obedience to His commands, that He is 
moved with pleasure, and His favor is bestowed 
upon them in an especial manner. " His tender 



A TONEMENT. 6/ 



mercies are over all His works," to be sure, but that 
does not interfere with the exercise of His justice, 
for "Justice and judgment are the habitation of His 
throne." Therefore His justice and His righteous 
laws must be vindicated ; crime, in the very nature 
of things, must be punished, and this is not incon- 
sistent with His tender mercies, which are over all 
His works. We can, perhaps, make this plainer by- 
taking, for instance, the case of a kind, loving, 
earthly father who has a wayward boy who has 
strayed away from his father's house into forbidden 
paths ; the father is grieved and displeased with his 
son's frowardness, but he loves him still, although 
he hates his sins. And may it not be so with our 
heavenly Father? indeed, we know it is so from 
Christ's pathetic parable of the Prodigal Son, which 
represents God's attitude to His erring children as 
one of unspeakable tenderness and solicitude. " He 
would have all men to be saved," therefore " He so 
loved. the world that He sent His only begotten Son 
into the world, that whosoever believeth in Him 
might not perish, but have everlasting life." 

Thus God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto Himself, " not imputing their trespasses unto 



68 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

them," and by the word of reconciliation which His 
ambassadors are still preaching does beseech us, in 
Christ's stead, to be reconciled unto God. 

Now on the Godward side of this reconciliation 
between God and man we are told in the Scriptures 
that Christ is " our merciful and faithful high priest." 
"And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for 
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world ;" 
and again, " Herein is love, not that we loved God, 
but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the 
propitiation for our sins." I John ii. 2, 4, 10. 

Now although, as we have seen in the foregoing 
argument, " God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto Himself," yet we must admit that in the Scrip- 
ture we have just quoted from (1 John) there is 
something more meant by Christ's acting as our 
merciful and faithful high priest (propitiating our 
sins) than reconciling the world unto Himself, for 
He is our high priest who propitiates the Father in 
behalf of us for the remission of our sins. Further- 
more, Christ is spoken of in the Scriptures as our 
advocate ; the last clause of the first verse of the 
chapter we have quoted reads thus : " If any man 
sin we have an advocate with the Fatlier, Jesus Christ 



ATONEMENT. 69 



the righteous." Now it is evident from the phrase- 
ology here employed that if Christ is our advo- 
cate with the Father, it is the Father who is to be 
impleaded or placated, or else why the need of an 
advocate ? 

So it is obvious that in the matter of reconciliation 
there is a Godward as well as a manward side, but 
that the main difficulty lies with the obstinacy of 
man's will and the hardness of his heart. Christ in 
His tender solicitude for man's salvation broke out 
in the pathetic words (while sitting on a hill over- 
looking Jerusalem), " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets and stonest them which are 
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered 
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Ah, 
here is the chief and sole difficulty in the way of 
reconciliation : " Ye will not come unto me that ye 
might have life !" 

We will next notice some passages of Scripture 
which speak of Christ as a Priest, and as a represen- 
tative ; first we will quote Ps. ex. 4 : " The Lord hath 
sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever 
after the order of Melchizedek." Also Heb. ii. 17: 



7o 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



" Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made 
like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful 
and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, 
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." 

Here we have a statement that Christ's priesthood 
extends forever after the order of Melchizedek. Under 
the Levitical economy the order of the priesthood 
was confined to the line of Aaron and his sons, who 
alone were ordained to offer both gifts and sacrifices 
for man ; but Christ's priesthood was of the order 
of Melchizedek, of the line of Shem, which had 
no descent, but ended with Melchizedek. So the 
analogy with the priesthood of Christ is striking, 
and if we knew more about Melchizedek it would 
perhaps be more so. Perhaps it would be profitable 
to contrast the offices of the Aaronic priesthood 
with the priesthood of Christ, that we may see more 
clearly the analogy between the type and the anti- 
type. 

Concerning the functions appertaining to the Le- 
vitical priesthood, we read in Heb. v. I, that " Every 
high priest taken from among men is ordained for 
men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer 
both gifts and sacrifices for sins." 



ATONEMENT. yi 



Here we see that the function of the priestly 
office was to offer both gifts and sacrifices for the 
sins of the people, which was done daily in the 
Tabernacle and the Temple service. The offerings 
were of various kinds, either from the herd or flocks; 
the sacrifice was brought voluntarily to the door of 
the Tabernacle and presented to the priest, and, after 
the laying on of hands of the offerer and the priest, 
was slain ; and the priest, on behalf of the offerer, 
offered it on the altar of sacrifice to God for the re- 
mission of the sins of the people. Thus we see that 
the priest offered both gifts and sacrifices. 

Now this was all typical of Christ, our " merciful 
and faithful High Priest," who voluntarily became 
" an high priest of good things to come, by a greater 
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, 
that is to say, not of this building," and did offer 
up Himself in His own body on the Cross a sacrifice 
for the sins of the people, and by whom we have 
" eternal redemption." 

We will next notice the perpetuity of Christ's 
priestly office. "Thou art a priest forever after the 
order of Melchizedek." The Aaronic priesthood 
came to an end when Christ's priesthood com- 



72 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



menced, because the Aaronic priesthood was typical 
of Christ, being "a shadow of better things to 
come." But Christ's priesthood continues forever. 
" He ever liveth to make intercession for His 
people." 

Some maintain that Christ was not a priest while 
He was upon earth, but only became a priest after 
His ascension into heaven, because forsooth He 
was not a descendant of Aaron ; for in the Mosaic 
economy no one could exercise the office of a priest 
except he was of the lineage of Aaron. But they 
forget that Christ was a priest after the order of Mel- 
chizedek, and not of the order of Aaron. Besides, 
if Christ did not become a priest until after His 
ascension into heaven, the typical import of the 
Levitical ritual was not fulfilled, for the office of a 
priest was to offer both gifts and sacrifices. How, 
then, could Christ have fulfilled this condition of 
offering both gifts and sacrifices after he had accom- 
plished His sacrifice ? is there not an inconsistency 
here? We maintain that Christ did fulfil the con- 
ditions of a priest by giving His body a voluntary 
sacrifice on the cross, and by shedding His blood 
for the sins of the whole world, and after His ascen- 



ATONEMENT. 



n 



sion into heaven still continues to be our great 
High Priest, to whom alone we must come, and 
bring our sacrifices of praise, and thanksgiving, and 
prayer; and, as our merciful and faithful High Priest 
will present the sacrifices of our hearts, which is 
a broken and contrite spirit, with the full assurance 
that He will not despise, for " He ever liveth at 
the right hand of God to make intercession for us." 

The next and last feature of the atonement which 
we will notice is the great sacrificial character of 
Christ's death on the cross. 

From the many passages of Scripture which speak 
of the (piacular) character of Christ's sufferings and 
death, we will quote from Heb. vii. 26, 27; ix. 12, 
14, 22, 28 : " Such an High Priest became us, who is 
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and 
made higher than the heavens; who needeth not 
daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, 
first for his own sins, and then for the people's ; for 
this He did once, when He offered up Himself." 
" Not by the blood of goats and of calves, but by 
His own blood, He entered in once into the holy 
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes 



74 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the 
purifying of the flesh : how much more shall the 
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit 
offered Himself without spot to God, purge your 
conscience from dead works to serve the living 
God ?" " Almost all things are by the law purged 
with blood ; and without the shedding of blood there 
is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the 
patterns of things in the heavens should be purified 
with these, but the heavenly things themselves with 
better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not en- 
tered into the holy places made with hands, which 
are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now 
to appear in the presence of God for us : nor yet that 
He should offer Himself often, as the high priest en- 
tereth into the holy place every year with the blood 
of others; for then must He often have suffered 
since the foundation of the world : but now once, in 
the end of the world, hath He appeared, to put away 
sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Also Heb. x. II, 
14: " Every high priest standeth daily ministering, 
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which 
can never take away sins; but this man, after He 
had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down 



ATONEMENT. 75 



on the right hand of God ; from henceforth expect- 
ing till His enemies be made His footstool: for by 
one offering He hath perfected forever them that 
are sanctified." 

As we have already observed, this system of sac- 
rifice for sin seems to be inherent in the whole 
moral creation ; and it can be traced back to Adam's 
time, for we read that Cain and Abel offered sacri- 
fices ; and in fact it is seen and reflected in the most 
ancient pagan rites ; and it seems to have been an 
inherent principle in these sacrifices that blood must 
be shed in order to make an atonement. Why this 
was so we cannot say, except that God had so or- 
dained it. We read that Cain's sacrifice was of the 
fruits of the earth and Abel's was of the firstlings 
of the flock, and that Cain's sacrifice was rejected, 
but that Abel's was accepted, because God had so 
appointed that " without the shedding of blood there 
is no remission of sins." Hence the significance of 
the Mosaic sacrifices, which consisted mainly of the 
shedding of blood; thus we read in the passage 
just quoted that "almost all things were by the law 
purged with blood, and without the shedding of 
blood there is no remission." 



y6 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

Some think that it was the want of faith on the 
part of Cain that was the reason why God did not 
have respect unto Cain's sacrifice as He had unto 
Abel's ; but that cannot be so, for the reason that if 
Cain had no faith at all he would not have thought 
it necessary to offer any sacrifice. But we think the 
true reason why God did not accept Cain's sacrifice 
was because he did not bring a sacrifice agreeably to 
God's appointment, and therefore he was disobedient 
to God's command— the same disobedience as Nadab 
and Abihu were guilty of, by offering strange fire 
unto the Lord while they had explicit instructions 
to use no fire but that from off the altar. And so it 
is at the present time ; many think they can come to 
God in some other way than by God's appointment ; 
they think that by living moral lives they can go to 
heaven and be accepted of God, as Cain thought 
that by offering the fruits of the earth it would be 
as acceptable to God as by offering the firstlings of 
the flock, as God had commanded. Christ says, " I 
am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh 
to the Father but by me, and there is no other name 
given under heaven among men whereby we can be 
saved but by me." This is God's appointed way of 



ATONEMENT. 



77 



saving men, and we may be sure that God's way is 
the best and the only way. 

Now we can see the infinite superiority of Christ's 
sacrifice over the Levitical sacrifices, which only 
" sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh" " and did 
not make the offerers perfect ;" " for the high priest 
standeth daily ministering, and offering oftentimes 
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins /" 
so it must be remembered that these sacrifices were 
only patterns or types of the better sacrifice that 
Christ, our great high priest, was to offer for us. 
Furthermore, in the old Mosaic economy the high 
priest " offered daily the same sacrifices which can 
never take away sins," but Christ offered Himself 
once in the end of the world" (i.e., the end of the 
Jewish dispensation): "hath He appeared to put 
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Again, the 
high priest entered once every year into the Holy of 
Holies to make an atonement for the people, after, 
first of all, he had made atonement for himself. But 
Christ, " our great High Priest, is not entered into the 
holy places made with hands, which are the figures 
of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in 
the presence of God for us ; nor yet that He should 



7 8 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into 
the holy place every year with the blood of others ; 
for then must He often have suffered since the 
foundation of the world ;" " but this man, after He 
had offered one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down 
on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting 
till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet: 
for by one offering He hath perfected forever them 
that are sanctified!' 

Now we see how incomparably superior Christ's 
sacrifice was to the carnal ordinances of the old Jew- 
ish dispensation, " which did not make the comers 
thereunto perfect," but were merely a shadow of 
better things to come, and only served " to the puri- 
fying of the flesh," that is in a moral point of view, 
but did not cleanse their consciences from dead 
works ; but the Apostle Paul argues, in contrasting 
the type with the antitype, thus : If these carnal ordi- 
nances did sanctify the unclean " to the purifying of 
the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, 
who through the eternal spirit offered Himself with- 
out spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God !" 

We learn from the foregoing treatise that there 



ATONEMENT. 79 



were two requisites essential to effect an atonement 
between God and man, namely, satisfaction to the 
justice of God and propitiation for the mercy of 
God. How can this be accomplished ? Who is suf- 
ficient for this ? This is the great mystery which 
interests the Angels in heaven, and which they 
desire to look into. Man had fallen from his 
former state of innocence, and had offended a right- 
eous God, and had become utterly incapable of 
living up to the requirements of the broken law. 
As the Apostle Paul expresses it in Rom. viii. 3, 4 
(R. V.), " For what the law could not do, wherein it 
was weak through the flesh, God sending His own 
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering 
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the require- 
ment of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk 
not after the flesh but after the spirit." Also Rom. 
iii. 19, 20 (R. V.) : " Now we know that what things 
soever the law saith it speaketh to them that are 
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped 
and all the world may be brought under the judg- 
ment of God, because by the works of the law shall 
no flesh be justified in His sight ; for through the 
law cometh the knowledge of sin." 



80 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

Here we have the lamentable fact stated that all 
the world was under condemnation, and that man 
was utterly incompetent to retrieve himself, "because 
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in 
His sight." Now it was necessary that God's justice 
should be satisfied and His law vindicated before 
reconciliation could be made ; and as the law was 
broken by a man it was imperative that His law 
should be vindicated by a man ; so God out of pity 
and compassion for man's helplessness sent His Son 
into the world in the likeness of a man as an offer- 
ing for sin, and He fulfilled the requirements of the 
law for us, so that God might be just and the justi- 
fier of all through faith in Him, and who, trusting in 
the merits of Christ's righteousness, might be justi- 
fied in His sight as completely as if we had fulfilled 
the law ourselves. 

And now, dear reader, we have seen in this re- 
demptive scheme which we have been considering 
the marvellous wisdom, condescension, and love 
which God has displayed, and the sacrifices He has 
made in order to redeem man from his ruined condi- 
tion, and yet at the same time to maintain the integ- 
rity of His righteous law. For He has said, "Till 



ATONEMENT, %i 



heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in 
nowise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." 

What a glorious salvation this is that God has 
provided ; and, best of all, it is full and free to all 
who will accept of it as a free gift. God has done 
all He could to save man, and those that shall be 
lost are without excuse. " For if the word spoken 
by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and 
disobedience received a just recompense of reward, 
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation f" 



82 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY AND MAN'S 
FREE AGENCY. 

Perhaps there is no subject that has so much per- 
plexed and estranged the minds of good people 
from the time of St. Augustine down to the present 
as the doctrine of God's sovereignty and man's free 
agency, and, we may add, has prevented so many 
from entering into the visible Kingdom of God. 

For, with all the subtile arguments of learned 
theologians to the contrary, the bald fact remains 
that man, being a thinking creature, will naturally 
come to the inevitable conclusion that if God exer- 
cises His sovereignty over man's eternal, spiritual 
destiny, this destiny is sealed and fixed irrevocably, 
without man's agency in the matter, and should lead 
to indifference in spiritual things ; therefore the oft- 
repeated remark we hear from the lips of the im- 
penitent, " If I am to be saved I will be saved, and 
if I am to be lost I will be lost." 

Never do we hear this remark that we do not regret 



GOB'S SOVEREIGNTY. 



83 



that John Calvin should have given just ground for 
it in his " Institutes," where he says (and we quote 
verbatim), "All men are not created for the same 
end, but some are foreordained to eternal life, others 
to eternal damnation." So, according as every man 
was created for one end or the other, we say he was 
elected, that is, predestinated to life, or reprobated, 
that is, predestinated to damnation. 

" This is a hard saying ; who can hear it" with- 
out a shudder of abhorrence ? We think if it were 
possible for Calvin to rewrite his " Institutes" of the 
Christian religion he would omit this horrible utter- 
ance, and save the world from this stone of stumb- 
ling and rock of offence. 

Unfortunately for him, he entirely ignored man's 
free will, thereby reducing him to a mere machine, 
and divesting him of all responsibility ; for how can a 
man be held responsible for his acts except he have 
the will or power of choice of his actions ? But since 
Calvin's day man has been advancing in liberal 
thought, and now it is conceded by almost all 
Christian sects that he is a free agent, and has some- 
thing to do in working out his salvation, although 
it is still considered a great mystery, and a difficult 



84 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

problem to solve and reconcile God's sovereignty 
with man's free agency. Where does God's sover- 
eignty end, and man's free agency begin ? Can the 
nexus be found? This question has never as yet 
been satisfactorily answered. 

The writer, after many years of assiduous study 
and reading, has at length been enabled to formulate 
some thoughts which are at least satisfactory to his 
mind, and if he shall be able to adduce some rea 
sons which will satisfy the minds of his readers he 
will be most happy. 

That God is a sovereign no one will deny. He is 
the supreme ruler and governor of the universe. 
" He rules among the armies of Heaven and the 
inhabitants of Earth." "By Him kings rule and 
princes decree justice." " In Him we live and move 
and have our being." "All our times are in His 
hands." " He openeth His hand and supplieth the 
wants of every living creature." "He hideth His 
face and they die." We might go on and adduce 
numerous texts of Scripture to prove incontestably 
that God is a sovereign, and exercises His supreme 
control in the management of the moral and ma- 
terial universe ; but it is our purpose to show that 



GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. 85 

God does not exercise His sovereignty over man's 
will in spiritual things, that He has constituted man 
a free agent, and consequently holds him responsible 
for his acts, for in the great day of final assize every 
one will be required to render an account to Him 
for the deeds done in the body, whether they be 
good or bad. In order to demonstrate this point 
more clearly to the general mind, so that it may be 
fully apprehended, we say, first, that God is a God 
of order, and has included Himself in that order, for 
we shall see as we progress in this argument that 
God, in creating the universe, has marvellously ar- 
ranged everything in a certain order, and in this 
order every created thing is circumscribed and 
bound to move. We see this exemplified in the 
movements of the heavenly bodies ; how uner- 
ringly each planet moves in its respective orbit 
around the sun, in the order in which the Creator 
first placed it, never deviating a line from its as- 
signed sphere. 

Passing by the wonderful order in the geological 
formation of the earth, we will notice the various 
orders of life on the earth. After God had created 
the heavens and the earth, then, as we learn in 



S6 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

Gen. i. and xi., He created life : " And God said, Let 
the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, 
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind [order], 
whose seed is in itself upon the earth." 

Next in order of life we learn in Gen. i. 20, that 
God created the moving creatures in the waters, then 
the winged fowls of the air after his kind [order]. 
Next in order, verses 24, 25, God created the beasts 
of the earth, and every creeping thing after his kind 
[order]. 

Then next in order He created Man, and gave 
him dominion over all the lower animals, as we read 
in Gen. i. 26, 27: "And God said, Let us make man 
in our own image, after our likeness; and let him 
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth 
upon the earth. So God created man in His own 
image, in the image of God created He him, male 
and female created He them." Now we begin to see 
in this order of arrangement the marvellous wisdom 
of God in creating first the means of subsistence for 
each creature in regular order. Man being last in 
the order, had dominion over all created things on 



GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. 



87 



the earth and was constituted the lord of creation ; 
but what we are particularly to notice in this con- 
nection is that God created man in His own image, — 
that is, He endowed him with an immortal spirit, as 
we learn in Gen. ii. 7: "And man became a living 
so?//." It was this likeness to God which gave him 
pre-eminence over the other creatures which God 
had made, and brought him up to conjunction and 
fellowship with God, fitted him for companionship 
and interchange of affection and love ; made him 
" partaker of the Divine nature," — that is, resem- 
blance of nature, which presupposes that there is in 
his constitution something analogous, with God, to 
enable him to be partaker of the Divine nature, 
something common to each individuality so co- 
alescing ; rendering him capable of enjoying the 
society of God in a state of perfect bliss ; as St. Paul 
says, " Man is of the race of God." 

This brings us to the main thought which we 
wish to emphasize, viz., that man being made in the 
image and nature of God must have free will and 
choice, for if he is lacking in this he cannot be of the 
nature of God, for this it is which places him in the 
series above the lower orders of God's creation, and 



88 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

gives him the pre-eminence. Now we think we 
have the key which unlocks the mystery of God's 
sovereignty and man's free agency, and claim that 
we have found the nexus. We therefore say that 
God has delegated or surrendered so much of His 
sovereignty as would conflict or interfere with the 
exercise of man's free will, — mark you, in spiritual 
things ; for we beg the reader to observe that all we 
contend for in regard to man's free agency is the 
exercise of his will in spiritual things. Therefore we 
see the reason why God holds man responsible for 
not only his acts but his thoughts also ; for we 
repeat, if man had not free will it would be un- 
reasonable to hold him responsible for his deeds ; it 
would be just as reasonable to hold a horse or any 
of the lower order of animals responsible for their 
actions.. Have we not here an argument to silence 
the cavils of the infidel which we so often hear, viz., 
Why did not God make man incapable of falling ? 
We answer, for the simple reason if He had done so 
He could not fulfil the order of man. The very fact 
that man did fall is strong proof that man is a free 
agent, for if he were not he never could have fallen. 
Thus God in His word recognizes man as a free 



GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. 89 

agent, and treats with him as such : " Come let us 
reason together, saith the Lord." 

Now there could be no meaning attached to the 
word reason, if man were not endowed with a free will 
to reason with. Just here we get another hint why 
God gave man a free will, viz., that his affectionate 
nature towards God his Father may be voluntary, 
hence reciprocal. It is this free interchange of love 
with His children, which God delights in. We have 
Christ's own words for this in John xiv. 21, 23 : " He 
that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I 
will love him." " If a man love me he will keep my 
words: and my Father will love him, and we will 
come unto him and make our abode with him." 
Here we see reciprocity of love and community of 
feeling, which cannot be predicated of any one 
except there be free and spontaneous interchange of 
love. God in His essence is love, and love craves 
some object for its exercise ; hence He created man 
with capacities suitable for the bestowment of His 
favor. So we repeat, He created man in His own 
image and likeness, partaker of the Divine nature, 
fitting him for the enjoyment of the society of God 
in a state of perfect bliss. 



9 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

Many persons while conceding the free agency 
of man are yet troubled in their minds concerning 
the Divine prescience. They say, Does not God 
know all my actions, my every thought, and all my 
ways, and does not His foreknowledge extend to 
my final destiny? Therefore, He must know be- 
forehand whether I will be saved or lost. 

Well, of course, God's prescience does compre- 
hend all things. Not a sparrow falleth to the 
ground without His notice, and the very hairs of 
our heads are all numbered by Him. But there 
is a wide difference between God's foreknowledge 
and foreordination. God knew beforehand that 
Adam and Eve would eat of the forbidden fruit, 
but who will have the hardihood to say that God 
constrained them to eat of that which He had for- 
bidden? 

Man's probationary life consists in the aggrega- 
tion of single acts or deeds, for which he will be 
judged accordingly, whether they be good or bad; 
and God has established imperative laws which ob- 
tain all through the moral creation, — that is, " what- 
soever a man soweth that shall he also reap." So 
every act of our probationary life is so many seeds 



GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. 



91 



of good or evil sown, which will inevitably repro- 
duce its kind. A repetition of single acts forms 
habit, and habit persisted in makes character, and 
character seals our future destiny. 

Now while we must admit that God knows our 
future destiny, which will be in accordance with the 
character which we build up in this life, whether it 
be for weal or woe, yet who will not admit in his 
inner consciousness that every one of these single 
acts which he has done in the body was done volun- 
tarily on his part, and without any coercion on 
God's part ? 

God in giving us free agency has given us the 
choice of good and evil for the exercise of our free 
will, with the power to resist evil and choose good, 
and therefore He holds us accountable for our 
choice, and if He exercises any influence on us it is 
to persuade our wills in the right direction. 

Again, that unfortunate English word "predes- 
tination" has been the occasion of much disturbance 
in the minds of men. It is a word that is suscep- 
tible of diverse meanings, and it depends altogether 
upon the particular sense in which we use the word 
in the interpretation of Scripture as to which of the 



9 2 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



various doctrines held by the church we shall drift 
into. 

The definition of the word predestination as given 
by the lexicographer is, foreordination ; predeter- 
mination ; fate ; to appoint beforehand by an un- 
changeable purpose ; intention ; the act of decreeing 
or foreordaining events. 

John Calvin and his adherents who believe in the 
doctrine of election and reprobation, have chosen 
to take the word predestination in the sense of pre- 
determination, and so interpret all passages of Scrip- 
ture which speak of the eternal purposes of God 
unconditionally, while Arminius and his adherents, 
who do not believe in the doctrine of unconditional 
election and reprobation, prefer to take it in the 
sense of intention subject to certain conditions, and 
so interpret all passages of Scripture which speak 
of the eternal purpose of God conditionally. 

We will now quote some of the strongest passages 
of Scripture on which the hyper-Calvinists rely for 
support of their theory of God's unconditional elec- 
tion and reprobation, and if we succeed in showing 
the fallacy of their views in these strong passages 
we need fear no other. 



GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. 93 

In Romans, eighth chapter, 28th, 29th, and 30th 
verses, we read thus : " And we know that all things 
work together for good to them that love God, to 
them who are called according to His purpose. For 
whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate 
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He 
might be the first-born among many brethren. 
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also 
called ; and whom He called, them He also justified ; 
and whom He justified, them He also glorified." 
Also, Eph. i. 5, 11 : "Having predestinated us unto 
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself 
according to the good pleasure of His will." " In 
whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being 
predestinated according to the purpose of Him who 
worketh all things after the counsel of His own 
will." 

Now if these passages of Scripture be taken as 
they read, disconnected from the context in which 
they are found, we must admit that they give strong 
support to the doctrine of election. But we con- 
tend that the Bible should be interpreted on general 
principles and not by isolated texts ; for if that prin- 
ciple be adopted we could prove almost anything by 



94 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

the Bible, no matter how absurd the theory may be. 
But let us consider these passages in connection 
with the context. In the first place we would 
remark, that if we read the preceding chapter in 
which this passage which we have quoted from 
Romans is taken, we shall see that these Roman 
converts to Christianity were suffering great perse- 
cution and afflictions of various kinds by reason of 
their profession of faith in Christ. St. Paul reminds 
them that they are no longer in bondage to the law 
of works of the flesh, but they, having been delivered 
from the bondage of sin and death, are made free- 
men in Christ Jesus; and having died to sin, and 
been buried with Christ and baptized into His death, 
were raised again to newness of life; and having 
been adopted children of God, " and if children then 
heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so 
be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also 
glorified with Him." Then he goes on by way of 
comforting them, and makes it a matter of calcula- 
tion, for he says, " I reckon that the sufferings of this 
present time are not worthy to be compared with the 
glory which shall be revealed to usward." This is 
the scope of the apostle's argument by way of ad- 



GO US SOVEREIGNTY. 



95 



ministering spiritual consolation to them in their 
afflictions and persecuticfns, and he then breaks out 
in the exulting language of the text that we are 
considering. And we know that all these afflictions 
which they were suffering will work together for 
good to them that love God, who are called accord- 
ing to His purpose, — i.e., it is according to the 
purpose of God to make His children perfect 
through suffering, and all such are called {i.e., it is 
their vocation) to endure hardship as good soldiers 
of the cross, and thereby they are made conformable 
to Christ : " if so be that they suffer with Him, they 
also shall reign with Him." 

Then he goes on to give a reason for these suffer- 
ings and tribulations which they were called to 
endure, and says, " For whom He did foreknow He 7 
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image 
of His Son, that he might be the first-born among 
many brethren." We will try to elucidate this pas- 
sage step by step as briefly as possible, for to enter 
into an elaborate discussion of this subject would 
greatly exceed the limits we have marked out for it. 

Now we would premise (in the first place) that 
St. Paul wrote these words to Christians who had 



9 6 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

been already converted, and not to unbelievers; for, 
as we have already remarked, he wrote these words 
to administer spiritual consolation to them in their 
severe persecutions, for he tells them in the 28th 
verse that all these things (trials and persecutions) 
work together for good to them that love God. This 
point conceded, it will help us better to understand 
the following words. 

First, then, " For whom He did foreknow He also 
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of 
His son, that He might be the first-born among 
many brethren." 

Now the Scriptures in many places speak of God 
as knowing His adopted children, and they know 
Him. "The Lord knoweth the way of the right- 
eous." "The Lord knoweth them that are His." 
Christ says, John x. 14 (R. V.) : "I am the good 
shepherd, and I know mine own, and mine own 
know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I 
know the Father." But some will say that for God 
to know and foreVnow is quite different. Not at all. 
The sempiternity of God comprehends all the past 
and the future as well as the present ; in fact, to the 
Divine mind there is no past or future but the ever- 



GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. gy 

present Now, as we have tried to show in our article 
on " Eternity," to which the reader is referred. Now 
we see the intimate relation that God sustains to His 
people, and we are further told that He did predesti- 
nate His adopted children " to be conformed to the 
image of His Son, that He might be the first-born 
among many brethren." As we have elected to use 
the word predestination in the sense of purpose or 
intention, we see that it is God's eternal purpose in 
bringing upon His people trials and tribulations in 
order to make them conformable to the image of 
His son. Secondly, " Moreover, whom He did pre- 
destinate them He also called [i.e., vocation], and 
whom He called them He also justified [i.e., ac- 
quitted or approved], and whom He justified them 
He also glorified." 

Now, having, as we think, demonstrated that the 
whole scope of the apostle's argument in the pre- 
ceding chapter, from which this controverted pas- 
sage is taken, was to administer spiritual comfort to 
these Roman converts to Christianity in their afflic- 
tions for the cause of Christ, and to show them that 
all these tribulations were intended for their spiritual 
good, the remaining portion of this passage will 
e g 9 



98 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

be easy to understand, and may be paraphrased 
thus : Moreover, brethren, as it is God's way of deal- 
ing with His adopted children in order to purify 
them by passing through the furnace of affliction, 
He has so ordained or appointed to them that are 
called or who have made it their vocation to lead a 
pure Christian life, and that they may be justified or 
approved of God, and thereby made partakers of the 
Divine nature, and thus "glorify God in their bodies 
and their spirits, which are His." " For whom the 
Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
whom He receiveth." And as the catechism has it, 
" Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him 
forever." 

The other passage we have quoted from Ephe- 
sians will need very little comment after what we 
have already said in the foregoing, and we need only 
quote the same passages from the Revised Version, 
and we think the meaning will be apparent and in 
harmony with our paraphrase on the eighth chapter 
of Romans. Eph. i. 5-1 1 (R. V.): "Having fore- 
ordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus 
Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure 
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, 



GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY. gg 



which He freely bestowed on us in the beloved, in 
whom we have our redemption through His blood ; 
in Him, I say, in whom also we were made a heri- 
tage, having been foreordained according to the 
purpose of Him who worketh all things after the 
counsel of His will." 

Now we think it must be obvious to every dispas- 
sionate mind that there is nothing in these passages 
to warrant the belief that God has predestinated any 
of His moral creatures to unconditional election to 
grace or reprobation; for God has positively said 
" He would have all men to be saved, and come to 
the knowledge of the truth as is in Jesus." Again, 
lest any should doubt God's intentions concerning 
His creatures, as regards their eternal destiny, He 
has made an oath, and as He could swear by none 
greater than Himself, He says (Ezek. xxxiii. u): 
" As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure 
in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live : turn ye, turn ye from your 
evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel ?" 
It is strange that after God has spoken so positively 
and confirmed it with an oath that any should still 
doubt that He has any intentions concerning His 



100 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

creatures but the best for their eternal destiny. God 
has given each one of us the choice of our destiny, 
and it will be just what we choose to make it. 
" Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." Now if 
we have shown in the foregoing argument that God 
has given to man freedom of choice in spiritual 
things, what becomes of Calvin's doctrine of elec- 
tion and reprobation, which has disturbed the minds 
of men for centuries, and has caused so much as- 
perity of feeling among all sects of Christians, and, 
we may add, dishonor to the cause of Christianity ? 
The writer has no wish to engage in a controversy 
with any who will not accept the views set forth in 
this article, the world has had enough of that ; but 
he invites criticism and disproof, if there be any who 
can demonstrate that the points presented in the 
foregoing are erroneous. It is the truth we are in 
search of on this vexed subject. And now, dear, 
impenitent reader, we beg you to earnestly ponder 
over this subject. If what we have tried to show be 
correct, there is a more fearful responsibility resting 
upon you than if the doctrine of election and rep- 
robation were true, for the matter of your soul's 
eternal interest depends on your choice. God says 



GO US SOVEREIGNTY. IO i 

to you, " Choose ye this day whom ye will serve ;" 
again, " Whosoever will, let him come and take of 
the water of Wfe freely" 

We know some will say that God worketh in the 
heart of the sinner, "both to will and to do of His 
good pleasure." Very well ; God's Spirit does move 
or operate upon the heart of every impenitent sin- 
ner, persuading his will, and it is His good pleasure 
that all may be saved, and come to the knowledge 
of the truth as is in Jesus, but He never does con- 
vert the sinner against his will. He must yield a 
willing obedience to God's commands. 

So it all amounts to simply this : whosoever will 
may be saved, and whosoever will not may be lost. 



102 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



RESURRECTION OF THE 
DEAD. 

Perhaps there is no doctrine of the Bible that is 
so little understood as the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion of the dead ; at least, none that men hold so 
many conflicting and vague opinions upon. All 
Christians believe in the resurrection of the dead ; 
but if we ask one to define his idea of it he will 
soon be confounded in the thought and confess his 
ignorance. If we go back to the time of Galileo, 
we find that the prevalent notion entertained was 
that the earth was flat, and that it was the centre of 
the universe, and that the resurrection and final 
judgment would take place in the Valley of Jehosha- 
phat, where all the quick and the dead were to be 
summoned to judgment to receive their final doom 
of reward or punishment ; but after it was demon- 
strated that the earth was round, and men's ideas 
began to expand, they abandoned that fallacious 
notion and took broader views of things. But 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 



103 



men's minds grow in wisdom gradually, little by- 
little, and it is not to be expected that we would, by 
one bound, jump from such gross ignorance to per- 
fect wisdom. 

As the creeds were made in the days of darkness 
and superstition, we are not to expect them free from 
errors, especially in the discernment of spiritual 
things. The so-called Apostle's Creed is a marvel- 
lous compendium of the Christian system of belief, 
and, considering the time it was formulated, it is 
wondrously free from errors, and it has received 
the assent of all Christian sects. Perhaps the only 
clause that might be complained of is that " I be- 
lieve in the resurrection of the body," and even this 
is not objectionable were it not generally understood 
to mean the natural or corporeal body that is to be 
reanimated. Nowhere in the Scriptures is it defin- 
itely stated that the natural or material body shall 
rise again, but the spiritual body will. So the creed 
is all right as it is, by simply inferring that the spirit- 
ual body is to be raised instead of the natural body, 
as it is most generally understood to mean. 

St. Paul, in 1 Cor. xv., exhaustively treats of this 
subject of the resurrection of the dead, and in his 



io4 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



epistle to the Corinthians (whose minds were also 
confused on this subject) he says, " But some man 
will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what 
body do they come ? Thou foolish one, that which 
thou sowest is not quickened, except it die : and that 
which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that 
shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, 
or some other grain." 

Here we have a plain statement that the body we 
bury in the ground is not the same body that shall be 
raised, for we read in verse 44, " It is sown a natural 
body, and is raised a spiritual body." Here we have 
a plain, positive statement (which will not admit of 
any other interpretation) that the natural or material 
body will not be raised, but the spiritual will be ; and 
when we get a positive declaration, we must accept 
it as the truth ; and all other passages of Scripture 
that seemingly may be construed to mean anything 
else must be interpreted in harmony with what we 
know to be the truth. 

Furthermore, we read in Job vii. 9, 10, " As the 
cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that 
goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. 
He shall return no more to his house, neither shall 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 105 

his place know him any more." Job xvi. 22, " When 
a few years are come, then I shall go the way 
whence I shall not return." Job. xiv. 12, "So man 
lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no 
more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of 
their sleep." 

Now we think these passages are sufficient to 
demonstrate conclusively that the natural or material 
body will not be raised from the dead. Now comes 
the question, " How are the dead raised up, and 
with what body do they come ?" We answer in St. 
Paul's words, " It is sown a natural body, it is raised 
a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there 
is a spiritual body." Mark you, there is a natural 
body, and there is a spiritual body. Verses 48, 49, 
50, " As is the earthy, such are they also that are 
earthy : and as is the heavenly, such are they also 
that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image 
of the earthy, we also shall bear the image of the 
heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God ; neither 
doth corruption inherit incorruption." 

Now we think, in the light of the Scripture that 
we have quoted, we are prepared to say that the 



106 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

natural body rises not again, but the spiritual body- 
does rise from the dead, and assumes the exact form 
and likeness of the natural body (verse 49), and as 
we have borne the image of the earthy, we also shall 
bear the image of the heavenly. This is plain, that 
our spiritual body is the very image of our natural 
body, and will be recognized as such in the other 
life ; this has been demonstrated by the appearance 
of Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion, Dives and Lazarus, and other instances that 
might be mentioned. It is a great mistake (as some 
think) that the soul after it leaves the body is in 
some undefinable state, half existence, or uncon- 
scious existence, for an indefinite time, or until the 
resurrection, when it is by some supposed it will 
join the dead body and come to judgment. We 
have no Scripture for such a notion, but the Scrip- 
tures always regard the departed spirit as in a per- 
fect state of existence, and in no way dependent on 
the body for existence or for the enjoyment of the 
spiritual life. Christ said to the dying thief on the 
cross, " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 
He did not say this day part or half of thee shall be 
with me, but thou thyself, all that constitutes thee a 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 107 

man. It is not the most comforting view to take of 
the spiritual life to suppose that our dear departed 
ones should be in a nondescript mode of existence 
or in a comatose state for thousands of years, await- 
ing the final resurrection day to join the dead, de- 
composed body, that it may enjoy the immortal life 
together; and yet many good people have this 
notion. The soul is no way dependent upon the 
body for existence, and after death at once enters 
upon the immortal life with all its faculties unim- 
paired. St. Paul says, " For me to live is Christ, 
but to depart and be with Christ is far better." 
Again he says, " It is sown in weakness, it is raised 
in power" So if it is raised in power, the soul is 
improved in all its essential elements of influence by 
being separated from the body, which is a clog and 
an hindrance to its full action and development in 
this life. St. Paul felt this when he breaks out in 
the exclamation, " O, wretched man that I am, who 
shall deliver me from the body of this death of sin ?" 
Who does not know in his experience that there is a 
constant conflict going on within him ? as St. Paul 
expresses it, " The spirit lusteth against the flesh and 
the flesh against the spirit, so that the one is contrary 



108 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

to the other ;" " that when we would do good evil is 
present with us ;" but when the spirit is freed from 
the impediment of the body, it takes its flight un- 
trammelled, and enters at once into the full fruition 
of its heaven-born aspirations, and, as we have 
reason to believe, the departed spirits of just men 
made perfect become angels ; and we read in Ps. ciii, 
20, that " the angels excel in strength!' Is not this 
being raised in power ? 

We come now to notice some passages of Scrip- 
ture which, if read literally, seem to imply the resur- 
rection of the dead body ; but as we have shown 
from other passages of Scripture which are definite 
and positive, and cannot be construed to mean any- 
thing else than what they clearly affirm (unless a 
thing can be said to be and not to be at the same 
time), we must find some interpretation that would 
be in harmony with what we have in the foregoing 
arguments demonstrated. St. Paul says, " The letter 
killeth, but the spirit giveth life." And Christ says 
(John vi. 63), " The words I speak unto you, they 
are spirit, and they are life." Just here we would 
remark that all the errors in the creeds of the church 
have their origin in interpreting literally passages of 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 



109 



Scripture which are symbolical and have a spiritual 
signification ; almost all Christ's teachings were sym- 
bolical ; they are spirit and they are life. 

As we have quoted passages from the Book of 
Job to prove that the dead body rises not again, we 
will now quote some passages which have been used 
in support of the theory that the natural body is to 
be raised. First we quote Job xix. 26, 27: "And 
though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet 
in my flesh shall I see God ; whom I shall see for 
myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, 
though my reins be consumed within me." The 
reader by referring to this passage will notice the 
words "though," "worms," and "body" are in 
Italics, which are interpolations, and not in the 
original manuscript. By omitting the Italicized 
words the text will read quite differently. Job was 
sorely afflicted with a loathsome disease, which de- 
stroyed the soundness of his skin, so that he abhorred 
himself, but saw in a prophetic vision the time when 
he would see God in soundness of flesh, which was 
literally fulfilled. After his restoration and vindica- 
tion we read, Job xlii. 5, " I have heard of Thee by 
the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes seeth 



HO MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS, 

Thee." Again (Isa. xxvi. 19) : " Thy dead men shall 
live; together with my dead body shall they arise. 
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is 
as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the 
dead." Dan. xii. 2 : "And many of them that sleep in 
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting 
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 

Now who does not know that these passages are 
symbolisms, portraying Israel's downfall and cap- 
tivity, as is instanced in the prophet's appeal (Isa. Hi. 
2): "Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, 
O Jerusalem : loose thyself from the bands of thy 
neck, O captive daughter of Zion." And it is further 
explained by the prophet Ezekiel in the vision of the 
resurrection of -the dry bones in the valley (Ezek. 
xxxvii. 1 1-13) : " Then he said unto me, Son of man, 
these bones are the whole house of Israel ; behold, 
they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost : 
we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy 
and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God : Be- 
hold, O my people, I will open your graves, and 
cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring 
you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know 
that I am the Lord when I have opened your 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. m 

graves, O my people, and brought you up out of 
your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye 
shall live, and I shall place you in your own land : 
then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken 
it, and performed it, saith the Lord." Thus we see 
that all these passages are symbolical of Israel's 
captivity and national restoration, and have no rele- 
vancy to the literal resurrection. 

We will now notice some passages in the New 
Testament which have been often quoted to prove 
the resurrection of the dead body, viz., John v. 28, 
29 : " Marvel not at this : for the hour is coming, in 
the which all that are in the graves shall hear His 
voice and shall come forth ; they that have done 
good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." 
These words of our Saviour are almost identical 
with the words we have quoted from Dan. xii. 2, and 
when read in connection with the context the spirit- 
ual significance will be apparent. For Christ says 
(John vi. 63), "The words I speak unto you, they are 
spirit, and they are life." And we have the true key 
to the spiritual import of these words in verses 24, 
25 : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth 



112 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath 
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna- 
tion, but is passed from death unto life." "Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now 
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of 
God, and they that hear shall live." 

Now it is plain that Christ is here speaking of a 
spiritual resurrection to those that are spiritually 
dead in trespasses and sin, for He says he that 
heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent 
me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into 
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. 
The Scriptures abound with metaphors representing 
the unregenerate as dead in sin, but after being re- 
generated or converted he passes from death unto 
life. That is, he riseth from the dead condition out 
of the grave of corruption or spiritual uncleanness 
to newness of life, and is made clean every whit " by 
the cleansing blood of Christ, or by the washing of 
regeneration" he becomes a new creature, and is 
alive in Christ. 

We ask, is this not the meaning of Christ's own 
words used in denouncing the hypocrisy of the 
Pharisees (Matt, xxiii. 27) : " Wo unto you, Scribes 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 



"3 



and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto 
whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful 
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, 
and of all uncleanness ?" Luke xi. 44 : " Wo unto 
you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are 
as graves which appear not, and the men that walk 
over them are not aware of them." 

It is evident this is the true meaning to be at- 
tached to Christ's words in the passage we have 
quoted, for the reader will notice that in verse 25 
He says, " The hour is coming, and nozv is, when the 
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
they that hear shall live." If He had reference to 
some remote resurrection He would not have said 
the hour now is. 

There are many other passages which speak of 
the resurrection of the dead, but, if read in connec- 
tion with the context, it will be apparent they have 
reference to a spiritual resurrection only; for in- 
stance, Eph. v. 14, where St. Paul, in exhorting the 
Ephesians to a better life, saith, " Awake, thou that 
sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall 
give thee light." Phil. iii. 10, 11: "That I may 

know him, and the power of his resurrection, and 
h 10* 



U4 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



the fellowship of his sufferings, being made con- 
formable unto his death ; if by any means I might 
attain unto the resurrection of the dead." 

Now it is manifest that the apostle is here speak- 
ing of that spiritual resurrection which every be- 
liever attains through fellowship with Christ, being 
made conformable unto His death. " Christ is the 
resurrection and the life" of every believer, and the 
exhortation is, " If we be risen with Christ, we 
should seek those things that are above, where 
Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." 

Thus we might go on and adduce many more 
passages of like import, but we think this will suf- 
fice to demonstrate the propositions we have made, 
viz. : First, There will be no resurrection of the nat- 
ural body. Second, There will be a resurrection of 
the spiritual body. Third, The resurrection of the 
spiritual body occurs at the last day of the natural 
life, or what is commonly called death. Fourth, 
The departed spirit enters at once upon the spiritual 
life, according to the order or character formed in 
this life. " Every man in his own order," as St. 
Paul expresses it. That is, according to the affini- 
ties of his nature, whether they be good or bad. 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 



"5 



According to the latest scientific thought, the 
human soul, as it leaves the body-, has an " ethereal 
non-atomic enswathement," which is the spiritual 
body spoken of in the Scriptures, and which is the 
body that is raised at death. 

If asked what is the substance of this non-atomic 
ethereal enswathement which constitutes the spirit- 
ual body, we answer we do not know, for the rea- 
son that the natural eye cannot see it, for the nat- 
ural eye is only adjusted to see material substances ; 
but we are not to suppose that there is nothing 
beyond that which we can see with our natural eyes. 
We cannot see electricity (except when it manifests 
itself in the flash of its interrupted current), but it is 
only necessary for one to take hold of the poles of 
an electric battery to be convinced that there is 
something that the eye does not see. 

If we had our spiritual eyes open, like Gehazi, the 
servant of the Prophet Elisha, we could then see 
these spiritual bodies (2 Kings vi. 17): "And Elisha 
prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, 
that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes 
of the young man ; and he saw ; and, behold, the 
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire 



Il6 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

round about Elisha." And may we not suppose 
that the substance of the spiritual body is some- 
thing that is analogous to electricity, especially 
when we consider the qualities which are ascribed to 
it in the Scriptures, viz., as possessing strength and 
power, vividness, incorruptibility, and immortality ? 

All these qualities inhere in electricity, and why 
should not the spiritual body be similarly consti- 
tuted ? We have shown in the foregoing argument 
that the spiritual body, as it leaves the natural body, 
takes on a form similar to the corporeal body, and 
the soul, which is the understanding and the will 
and consciousness, must have a body suitable to the 
spiritual existence, by which it acts. Paul says 
(i Cor. xv. 38), "God giveth it a body as it hath 
pleased him, and to every seed his own body." 
Just as every seed when it germinates and rises from 
the ground with a new body which God gives it 
so every soul when it rises from the dead, God 
giveth it a new body suitable for its spiritual life. 
Again (2 Cor. v. 1-3, R. V.), " For we know that if 
the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved we 
have a building from God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens. For verily in this we 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 



11/ 



groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habita- 
tion which is from heaven : if so be that being 
clothed we shall not be found naked. For indeed 
we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being bur- 
dened : not for that we would be unclothed, but that 
we would be clothed upon, that what is immortal 
may be swallowed up of life." 

What a glorious description this is of the spiritual 
body with which God clothes the naked soul! and we 
ask the reader to notice particularly that the naked 
soul has not to wait for thousands of years in an 
unconscious sleep (as some suppose) before being 
clothed with a body, but as soon as the earthly 
house is dissolved we have — not shall have, but have 
— a building from God (mark you), a house not 
made with hands, but eternal in the heavens ! For, 
as the Apostle expresses it, " for indeed we that are 
in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened : not for 
that we would be unclothed, but that we would be 
clothed upon." Now comes the grand and sublime 
thought " that what is immortal may be swallowed 
up of life." So we see that all that is immortal in 
us is taken with us, and is swallowed up in life ever- 
lasting. Being clothed upon with the spiritual body, 



Il8 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

which is as well adapted for the spiritual world as 
the natural body is adapted to the natural world, 
with capacities immeasurably increased, and not sub- 
ject to the ills which the natural body is in this life, 
and in which we do groan, being burdened with so 
many infirmities ; but then " God shall wipe away 
all tears from our eyes, and there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall 
there be any more pain, for the former things are 
passed away" (Rev. xxi. 4). Dear reader, if we 
could sufficiently apprehend the joys and the glo- 
rious inheritance that awaits the Christian in the 
spiritual life, we would not think of death with that 
dread as we are wont to think of it, but we should 
feel like St. Paul did when he took a calm view of 
it, and gave utterance to a strong desire to depart 
this life and be with Christ, which is far better than 
anything in this life can afford ; and Paul also says, 
" For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain." And 
so it is a great gain to exchange this burdensome 
body for one not burdensome. The grave gets only 
that part which is effete and of no more use to us, 
and gets no victory, for the real man, the immortal 
soul, has risen from the dead, and is clothed upon 



RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 119 

with a heavenly body. And now we are prepared 
to join in the Apostle's exulting and triumphant 
exclamation, " grave ! where is thy victory ? O 
death ! where is thy sting ?" 

The poet Pope was inspired with the true idea 
of death when he wrote the following words, which 
we quote, and with which we close this dissertation : 

" The world recedes : it disappears ! 
Heaven opens on my eyes ! my ears 
With sounds seraphic ring. 
Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly ! 
O grave ! where is thy victory ? 
O death ! where is thy sting ?" 



I2 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



CHRIST'S RESURRECTED 
BODY. 

It is now conceded to be an undeniable fact that 
Christ did rise from the tomb on the third day after 
His crucifixion, according to the Scriptures, without 
His body suffering the dishonor of corruption, as 
was predicted. Ps. xvi. 10 : " For thou wilt not 
leave my soul in hell [i.e., grave] ; neither wilt thou 
surfer thine Holy One to see corruption." And 
Jesus Himself said (John ii. 19), "And Jesus an- 
swered and said unto them, Destroy this temple 
[i.e., body], and in three days I will raise it up." 

Various attempts have been made to disprove the 
historical fact that Christ did rise from the dead 
on the third day after His crucifixion, but there is 
sufficient corroborative contemporaneous history to 
establish the fact incontestably that such was the 
truth, and we do not deem it necessary to adduce 
any further testimony to prove what is now almost 
universally admitted. 



CHRIST'S RESURRECTED BODY. I2 i 

The reason why the enemies of Christianity have 
been so much concerned to refute the historical 
account of Christ's resurrection is that it is the 
pivotal point upon which Christianity hinges. St. 
Paul felt this, and in his preaching he earnestly and 
persistently insisted upon this one point in establish- 
ing the foundations of the Christian religion. He 
says (i Cor. xv. 17), "And if Christ be not raised, 
your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins." So if 
the infidel could only prove that Christ did not rise 
from the dead the third day, "according to the Scrip- 
tures," and that all the corroborative history is a 
myth, he would undermine the foundations of the 
Christian religion and the world be without a 
Saviour. 

There have been various opinions held concerning 
the nature of Christ's risen body during the time 
between His resurrection and ascension. Some have 
thought it was a physical body, but the greater part 
have held it was a spiritual body. 

Now we propose to show that while both of these 
opinions are true in part, yet neither are true in the 
abstract. For we think it can be proved from Scrip- 
ture that our Lord had both a natural and spiritual 

F II 



122 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

body at times between His resurrection and ascen- 
sion. 

In the first place, we will quote a passage of Scrip- 
ture which proves conclusively that at the time He 
appeared to His disciples in the room, after His 
resurrection, He must have had a natural body. 
Luke xxiv. 37, 39 : " But they were terrified and 
affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 
And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled ? and 
why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Behold my 
hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and 
see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see 
me have." 

Now this is plain language, and will not admit of 
any controversy as regards the kind of a body which 
Christ had when these words were spoken, and 
every candid mind must admit that at this time He 
had a corporeal body, or else there can be no mean- 
ing in these plain words. 

Now let us look at the other side of this question, 
and we will see that on another occasion He had a 
spiritual body. Thomas not being present on the 
first occasion of His appearance to His disciples, 
when they had told him that they had seen the Lord 



CHRIST S RESURRECTED BODY. 



123 



would not believe, and said, " Except I shall see in 
His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger 
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into 
His side, I will not believe." John xx. 26. "Then 
after eight days again His disciples were within, and 
Thomas with them ; then came Jesus, the door being 
shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto 
you." 

Here it is evident He came into the room in a 
spiritual body, for the reader will notice that He 
came into the room the door being shut. This is 
significant, for how could He get into the room with- 
out opening the door if He had a natural body? 
But after He .was in the room He materialized His 
body, and said, " Peace be unto you," and after eat- 
ing with them, and convincing unbelieving Thomas, 
He vanished out of their sight. 

We read often different instances during the forty 
days intervening between His resurrection and as- 
cension of His appearing and disappearing to His 
disciples, and He must have changed His natural 
body into a spiritual body, and vice versa. 

This power of mind over matter has long been 
recognized even in the human being; many in- 



124 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



stances have been given in psychological treatises. 
Why, then, should it be thought incredible that our 
Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, should not 
have the power to change His natural body into a 
spiritual one, and vice versa ? We read of two in- 
stances before His crucifixion (Luke iv. 29, 30 ; John 
viii. 59) in which He must have converted His natu- 
ral body into a spiritual one, or how could He have 
hid Himself or passed through a throng of people 
unseen, especially when they were intent on killing 
Him? 

Again, Elijah, when translated in a chariot of fire, 
must have been changed from a material body into a 
spiritual body; also Enoch; for we are told that "flesh 
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven." 

We might mention several instances where angels 
have been materialized; for instance, the three 
angels that came into the tent of Abraham and 
dined with him. Phantoms do not eat. Also the 
angels that pulled Lot out of Sodom by force ; but 
most noticeable of all the angelic appearances was 
tb* angel who wrestled with Jacob all night and 
dislocated his hip-joint. Could a phantom do this ? 

Why, then, should there be any doubt that Christ 



CHRIST'S RESURRECTED BODY. 125 

had power over His own body at will to change the 
material into the spiritual or the spiritual into the 
material ? His changing of water into wine, or feed- 
ing five thousand persons " with five loaves of bread 
and two small fishes" are as extraordinary miracles 
as this. All Christians believe the Scripture account 
of our Lord's conception, which was a clear and 
remarkable instance of spirit-power over matter, as 
St. John tells us (John i. 14) : " The Word [spirit] 
was made flesh [matter], and dwelt among us." In 
fact, the whole material universe is a standing argu- 
ment in favor of this spirit-power over matter, for 
God, who is spirit, "created the heavens and the 
earth" by an impulse of His will or mind. 

If we could only realize the fact that matter is 
subject to mind, and not mind to matter, the fore- 
going thoughts would appear more plausible. We 
are accustomed to say that the hand of man con- 
structs our houses and ships and engines, while the 
truth is that the hand is only the instrument by 
which the mind does it, — the hand of a Raphael is 
no more competent than the hand of a chimpanzee 
to paint those master-pieces of art without the mind 

of a Raphael. 

11* 



126 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

We see this thought exemplified in nature ; it is 
the unseen forces of nature that are the most power- 
ful. Heat and cold are more powerful forces than 
the lever or the screw of Archimedes ; so, in a much 
greater degree, is this unseen power of the spiritual 
world over the world of matter. We read that " the 
angels excel in strength," and that God (who is 
spirit) is almighty, and, in fact, all power is unseen ; 
for St. Paul says, " The things that are seen are tem- 
poral, but the things that are not seen are eternal." 



JUDGMENT. 127 



JUDGMENT. 

In our dissertation on the resurrection of the dead 
the reader no doubt was disappointed in not finding 
anything concerning the judgment. We purposely 
avoided touching that theme at that time, in order to 
treat of it under a special head, which we now take up. 

The popular belief as regards the judgment-day is 
that after the resurrection of the dead body the quick 
and the dead from Adam down will be gathered to- 
gether in one grand convocation, and Christ will 
come in the clouds of heaven, with the angels with 
Him, and at the sounding of the trumpet all people, 
of every kindred and tongue, will be summoned to 
judgment; and after the final judgment the earth 
will be burned up, and the heavens rolled up like a 
scroll, and the elements melt with fervent heat. All 
this to take place in the physical world. 

We will now examine this subject in the light of 
Scripture, and see if this received notion is the cor- 
rect one or not. 



128 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

As we remarked in treating of the resurrection, if 
we read the Scriptures literally we will get into in- 
extricable confusion, and can prove almost anything 
from Scripture, no matter how absurd it may be. 
God is the author of all truth, and there is a three- 
fold method of testing truth, viz., by Scripture, 
reason, and science. If by applying this method we 
find Scripture, reason, and science harmonize, we may 
be assured it is the truth, and any proposition that 
will not stand this test we may be sure is not truth, 
for God is the author of all, and they must agree. 

We will now inquire, first, when does the judg- 
ment take place; second, where does the judgment 
take place ; third, how ? 

In answering the first question, viz., When does 
the judgment take place ? we must go to the Scrip- 
tures for our answer. We read in Heb. ix. 27 (R. 
V.): "And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men 
once to die, and after this cometh the judgment." 
We have here a plain, positive statement that after 
the death of the body then comes the judgment. 
Nothing is said about the departed spirit's going 
into some undefinable state or place for an indefinite 
time, to await the final resurrection of the dead and 



JUDGMENT. I2 q 



judgment-day at the end of the world, at the final 
consummation of all things, when the elements are 
to melt with fervent heat, which may be millions of 
years in the remote future. No ; the Scriptures say, 
after a man dies then comes judgment; death is a 
finality to all that pertains to this life, and /the im- 
mortal spirit, after leaving the dead body, is judged 
at once, and enters upon its final state, either of bliss 
or misery, according to the character formed in this 
life. " He goes to his own place," as is instanced in 
the different conditions of Dives and Lazarus. Thus 
we aver that the judgment takes place immediately 
after the spirit departs from the body. Were it not 
so, how could Dives and Lazarus, and Judas too, 
have gone to their own place ? Is it reasonable to 
suppose that a righteous God would consign a 
moral accountable being to perdition or to heaven 
without judgment being first had? Impossible: it 
would be a libel on God's goodness and wisdom to 
suppose such a thing. 

Having answered our first inquiry, viz., When does 
the judgment take place? we will now notice our 
second inquiry, viz., Where does judgment take 
place ? 



130 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

In regard to this question, if we have shown that 
judgment takes place immediately after the death 
of the body, the corollary is it must take place in 
the spiritual world, and all the accounts we have in 
the Scriptures of the judgment imply that it is in 
the spiritual world, Daniel, when his spiritual eyes 
were opened and he was permitted to see into the 
spiritual world, says (chapter vii. verses 9, 10), " I be- 
held till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient 
of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, 
and the hair of his head like pure wool : his throne 
was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning 
fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from 
before him : thousand thousands ministered unto 
him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood 
before him. The judgment was set, and the books 
were opened." Also John the Revelator (his spir- 
itual eyes being open, was permitted to look into 
the spiritual world), says (Rev. xx. 1 1, 12), "And I 
saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, 
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled 
away ; and there was no place for them. And I saw 
the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the 
books were opened : and another book was opened, 



JUDGMENT. I3I 



which is the book of life: and the dead were 
judged out of those things which were written in 
the books, according to their works." 

Here we have a declaration of two, who, having 
their spiritual eyes opened, were permitted to look 
into the spiritual world, and they both agree in say- 
ing that they saw a great multitude standing before 
the throne of God, actually undergoing judgment. 
We know some will say these visions of the judgment 
have reference to the final day of judgment, at the 
dissolution of the earth ; but the reader will notice 
that Daniel and John both say they " saw" or " be- 
lield" which implies the present. And when we 
consider the fact that there are something like one 
hundred thousand souls departing from this life 
every twenty-four hours, we are not surprised at the 
numbers that are constantly being judged. 

The idea which some have broached, viz., that the 
soul after death goes into a sleep, or is imprisoned 
in Hades — that is, the centre of the earth — in a 
comatose state, awaiting the final judgment, is un- 
philosophical, and to our mind absurd ; for spirit is 
not subject to matter, and cannot be imprisoned in 
matter ; neither do spirits sleep. " God is not the 



I 3 2 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

God of the dead, but of the living." " Now is the 
judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this 
world be cast out" (John xii. 31). Some think they 
can see* a sufficient reason for a deferred resurrection 
of the body and final judgment from the fact that all 
the bad or good deeds were committed while the 
soul was in the body, and therefore as a consequence 
the body should have a share in the misery or hap- 
piness resultant therefrom. 

To the inconsiderate this may seem plausible, but 
a little consideration will show the futility of such 
a notion; for the body never performed an act 
without being instigated by the soul. We do not 
think of holding a horse responsible for his deeds, 
for the reason that he is not an accountable, con- 
scious being. The body of a man is merely the 
instrument by which the soul acts while in the body, 
and is no more accountable than Guiteau's pistol, by 
which he shot our lamented President. Besides, 
scientists tell us that the natural or corporeal body 
changes entirely every seven to ten years ; so if a 
man dies at the age of seventy he has had seven to 
ten different bodies. Therefore sins that were com- 
mitted at the ages of ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, 



JUDGMENT. ^3 



or sixty years were committed in a different body 
from that he had when he died. Which of these 
seven bodies will be raised or judged ? The 
absurdity riiust be apparent to every thoughtful 
mind. 

But some will object and say, Do not the Scrip- 
tures speak of a final dissolution of the heavens and 
the earth when the Son of Man shall come in the 
clouds of heaven, with the angels with Him, at the 
last day to judge the world ? Yes ; and we will now 
notice some of these passages and see if they are 
susceptible of a literal or spiritual interpretation. 
First we will quote from Isa. xxxiv. 4 : " And all the 
host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens 
shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their 
host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the 
vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree." Also we 
quote a similar passage from Matt. xxiv. 29-31 : 
" Immediately after the tribulation of those days 
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not 
give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, 
and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken : and 
then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in 
heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth 



134 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming 
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 
And He shall send His angels with a great sound 
of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His 
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven 
to the other." 

Let us now see if these passages will stand the 
test of a literal interpretation by applying the three- 
fold test we have indicated, viz., is it in accord with 
reason, science, and Scripture? If we read these 
passages literally, all the stars of heaven are to fall 
from heaven to the earth. The science of astronomy 
teaches us that the sun is the centre of a system of 
worlds to which our earth belongs, and the fixed 
stars are innumerable suns, forming centres of sys- 
tems of other worlds beyond our conception or com- 
putation ; and when we consider that in our system 
alone there are planets nine or ten hundred times 
larger than our earth, we begin to see the absurdity 
of the notion that all, or even the stars belonging to 
our solar system, may fall down to the earth. The 
planet Jupiter alone would cover nine hundred 
worlds the size of our earth ; so it is difficult to see 
how all the stars of heaven could fall down to our 



JUDGMENT. x 3 5 



earth. It is unreasonable and unscientific, and will 
not stand our test, therefore we must seek some 
other interpretation for the passages we have quoted. 
God does not require us to believe an absurdity ; 
there are many mysteries above our reason but not 
contrary to reason. 

How, then, shall we interpret these passages of 
Scripture in harmony with the views we have set 
forth in the foregoing argument? We read in 
verses 3, 4, in this same chapter from which we have 
quoted that after Christ had foretold to His disciples 
the destruction of the Temple, and the tribulations 
that were to come, His " disciples came unto Him 
privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things 
be ? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and 
of the end of the world ?" And Jesus answered, 
and said unto them, " Take heed that no man de- 
ceive you." Then, after enumerating the various 
tribulations that were to transpire, He tells them, in 
verse 36, " But of the day and the hour knoweth no 
man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father 
only." And enjoins them in verse 42, " Watch, 
therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord 
doth come ;" and verse 44, " Therefore be ye also 



1 36 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

ready ; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son 
of Man cometh." 

Now it is evident that Jesus meant to impress 
upon His disciples the all-important thing, viz., to 
be ready when the Son of Man cometh, which is 
evidently the hour of death. Furthermore, He tells 
them in verse 34, " Verily I say unto you, This 
generation shall not pass till all these things be 
fulfilled." So it is plain that He referred to the 
destruction of Jerusalem, or the end of the Jewish 
dispensation, which was undoubtedly meant by the 
phrase "the end of the world," or "the end of the 
age" (as it is translated in the R. V.) ; and so all 
through the New Testament, where the phrase oc- 
curs, " the end of the world" means the end of the 
age, or <zon y and not the end of the physical world, 
as some suppose. 

Again, He tells them " the sun shall be darkened, 
and the moon shall not give her light." What sun ? 
surely not the physical sun, but the sun of right- 
eousness. God is represented throughout the Bible 
metaphorically as a sun. Ps. lxxxiv. 11:" For the 
Lord God is a sun and shield : the Lord will give 
grace and glory;" also we read in the Prophet 



JUDGMENT. I37 



Isaiah, sixtieth chapter, that after Israel should 
emerge from the gross darkness occasioned by their 
apostasy from the true light of the " sun of righteous- 
ness," the prophet exclaims, in verses I, 2, 3, " Arise, 
shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the 
Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness 
shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: 
but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and His glory 
shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall 
come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of 
thy rising." Then, verse 20, " Thy sun shall no 
more go down ; neither shall thy moon withdraw 
itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, 
and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." 

These graphic words of the prophet are so, plain 
they need no comment ; as the natural sun is dark- 
ened by the intervention of the clouds, so the light 
of God, our spiritual sun, is darkened by sin, which 
separates us from God. When by our sins we ob- 
scure the light which comes from God, then our 
foolish hearts become darkened, and we mourn the 
hidings of His face ; but when we repent of our sins, 
and sincerely turn to God with full purpose of heart 

to love Him and obey His commandments, then 

12* 



I 3 8 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

the " sun of righteousness will arise with healing in 
his wings," and fill our hearts with the sunshine of 
His " grace and glory." What a lamentable exem- 
plification of this obscurity of the sun of righteous- 
ness came over the minds and hearts of men in the 
Middle or Dark Ages, when their foolish hearts 
were so darkened that they thought they were doing 
God's service by persecuting and actually killing 
one another because they differed in their religious 
opinions ; and men become intolerant always when 
their foolish hearts are darkened by ignorance and 
sin, which obscures the light which shines from the 
sun of righteousness. As John (i. 5) expresses it: 
" And the light shineth in darkness ; and the dark- 
ness comprehendeth it not." 

Again, " The moon shall not give her light, and 
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of 
the heavens shall be shaken." As the moon re- 
ceives her light from the sun, so the true believer 
receives light from the sun of the soul, " which 
shines more and more unto the perfect day ;" and as 
the stars reflect in the darkness of the night points 
of light, so God's word, if studied in the light of the 
spirit of truth, which " lighteneth every man that 



JUDGMENT, 139 



cometh into the world," will shed light into the 
spiritually minded ; so that every word of God will 
be a bright and shining star to those who have 
spiritual receptivities for comprehending it, for it 
is only those that are spiritually minded who can 
discern spiritual things. But when the minds of 
men become darkened with sensuous thoughts and 
selfish ends, then it is night to the soul : " the 
moon shall not give her light, and the stars fall from 
heaven." 

This is evidently the modal of interpretation to 
be given to this passage of Scripture, which will be 
made more apparent from Christ's own words (Matt. 
xxiv. 15): " When ye therefore shall see the abomi- 
nation of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the 
prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let 
him understand)." Now if we turn to Daniel, chapter 
ix., we will see that Daniel had prophesied these 
abominations and desolation that were to come upon 
the house of Israel, of which Christ had been telling 
His disciples ; and when He tells them in verse 34, 
" Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not 
pass till all these things be fulfilled," we must come 
to the conclusion that this passage of Scripture 



140 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



had reference to the end of the Jewish church. If 
the reader will refer to several correlative passages 
in the Old Testament, viz., Isa. xiii. 10; Ezek. xxxii. 
7; Joel ii. 10, 31, and iii. 15 ; Amos v. 20, viii. 9, he 
will see that they all pointed to the end of the 
Jewish dispensation and the setting up of Christ's 
spiritual kingdom. 

But, again, how shall we interpret the words, 
" And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man 
in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes of the earth 
mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming 
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 
And He shall send His angels with a great sound 
of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His 
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to 
the other" ? 

As we think we have demonstrated that the other 
portions of this passage are not susceptible of a lit- 
eral interpretation but a spiritual, so we must give 
this portion also a spiritual meaning; and as we 
think the Bible is its own interpreter, we will quote 
some passages that have a bearing on this subject. 
If we turn to the seventh chapter of Daniel, we read 
that Daniel had a vision of four beasts, which were 



JUDGMENT. I4I 



symbolisms of four different forms of antichrist or 
opposing powers to Christ's spiritual kingdom ; and 
after describing the overthrow of these various forms 
of opposition, he uses, in verses 13, 14, almost the 
same expression, viz., " I saw in the night visions, 
and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the 
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, 
and they brought him near before him. And there 
was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
that all people, nations, and languages should serve 
him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which 
shall not be destroyed." Then we read in the follow- 
ing verses that Daniel was troubled to know the 
meaning of this vision ; then we read in verses 16, 
17, 18, "I came near unto one of them that stood by, 
and asked him the truth of all this. So he told 
me, and made me know the interpretation of the 
things. These great beasts, which are four, are four 
kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the 
saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, 
and possess the kingdom forever, even for ever and 
ever." Here it is plain that this vision which Daniel 
saw was a symbolism of Christ's final triumph over 



142 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



the powers of darkness, and His spiritual kingdom 
shall be everlasting. And the saints of the Most 
High shall reign with Him for ever and ever. When 
all this shall come to pass then shall appear the sign 
or banner of triumph in heaven, and then shall all 
the tribes of the earth who have opposed His reign 
mourn because of the clouds of ignorance and 
superstition under which they have been resisting 
Messiah's reign ; and the gospel trumpet of Christ 
shall gather together His chosen people from the 
four winds, from one end of heaven to the other; 
and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth 
as the waters cover the sea. 

That this is the construction which should be 
given to this passage of Scripture is made more 
clear by Christ's own words in answer to the 
question propounded by the Pharisees as to the 
time when the kingdom of God cometh. Luke 
xvii. 20, 21 : "And being asked by the Pharisees 
when the kingdom of God cometh, He answered 
them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation : neither shall they say, Lo here ! 
or, there ! for, lo ! the kingdom of God is within 
you." 



JUDGMENT. 143 



Here we have a plain intimation that the passage, 
"And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory," etc., 
is not to be read literally ; for if read literally it 
would be with great show or observation, whereas 
He tells them "The kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation" or outward show ; and, further, He 
tells them, " Neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or, 
there ! for, lo ! the kingdom of God is within you ;" 
that is, you need not expect me to come in a visible 
bodily form, with outward show ; so that you should 
say, Lo! here is Christ, or, lo, there! for my king- 
dom is a spiritual kingdom, and is already within 
you. 

Here is a grand truth which few Christians seem 
to comprehend or realize, " The kingdom of God is 
within you." We are so prone to think of heaven 
as a distant place; located, as some think, in the 
centre of the material universe; and as the star 
Alcyone is supposed by astronomers to be the 
centre of the universe, some theologians have con- 
jectured that heaven is located there. This notion 
has originated no doubt from the fact that they have 
not considered Christ's saying, "The kingdom of 



144 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

God is within you." If we could only realize more 
fully that Christ's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, 
and needs no material location for heaven, we would 
see the absurdity of such a notion. The spiritual 
world is not far off, but is only separated by the veil 
of the fleshly body; and just so soon as the spirit is 
separated from the body it enters at once into the 
spiritual world ; and if the kingdom of heaven has 
had a beginning while the spirit was in the body, 
it must continue to be in heaven when out of the 
body. 

We now come to consider our third inquiry, viz., 
How does judgment take place? In order to an- 
swer this question we must again have recourse to 
the Scriptures, for we ask the reader to witness that in 
the treatment of this subject we have not advanced a 
thought without being supported by divine revela- 
tion ; so those who may object to the views set forth 
in this dissertation must make their complaints to 
the Bible. For if we know our own heart, we have 
had no other end in view but to learn the truth and 
follow the leadings of the spirit of all truth ; and this 
can only be done by divesting the mind of all pre- 
conceived notions and doctrines formed by men and 



JUDGMENT. ^5 



by humble submission to the teachings of the Spirit 
of God. 

But, if the reader will pardon this digression, we 
will pursue our subject, How, then, does judgment 
take place ? 

If we turn to 2 Cor. v. 10 (A. V.), we read these 
words : " For we must all be made manifest before 
the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may- 
receive the things done in the body, according to 
what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 

Now we see that we must all appear (as it is ren- 
dered in the A. V.) before the judgment-seat of 
Christ ; and all the deeds done while in the body are 
to be made manifest to the omniscient eye of the 
judge ; whether it be good or bad, and just accord- 
ing to the deeds done while in the body, we shall 
receive our reward or punishment. But just here 
we would ask those who hold that the body will be 
raised and come to judgment, Why judged accord- 
ing to the deeds done while in the body if the body 
is already present ? is there not an incongruity here ? 

Again we read in Rev. xx. 12 (R. V.), " And I saw 

the dead, the great and the small, standing before 

the throne ; and the books were opened; and another 
g k 13 



146 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

book was opened, which is the book of life; and 
the dead were judged out of the things which were 
written in the books according to their works." 

Here again we see that we are to be judged ac- 
cording to our works, and these works are written 
in the books. " And the books were opened, and the 
dead were judged out of the things which were writ- 
ten in the books." What books ? Surely we are not 
to read this literally, too, and suppose that God has 
opened a ledger account with us, and employed the 
angels as His book-keepers. God, " whose under- 
standing is infinite," has no need to keep books, for 
"all things are open and naked to Him with whom 
we have to do," and He will hold us to a strict 
account for even every idle word or thought, and 
"will try every man's work of what sort it is." But if 
we turn to Jer. xvii. I, we shall see that these books 
are our own hearts : " The sin of Judah is written 
with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond ; 
it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon 
the horns of your altars." Thus we see plainly that 
it is our own hearts that will condemn us for all the 
bad deeds that we committed while in the body. 
Memory will be the book that will be used at the 



JUDGMENT. 14; 



judgment, as we have a hint in the case of Dives and 
Lazarus : " Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime 
hadst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things," 
and I ask the reader whether he has ever forgotten 
a bad deed that he has done in his life ? The expe- 
rience of every honest heart is that the more we try 
to forget a bad or mean act the closer it sticks to 
us ; it is indelibly written with a pen of iron, and 
with the point of a diamond, on the tablet of our 
hearts. " For God shall bring every work into 
judgment with every secret thing, whether it be 
good or whether it be evil." (Eccl. xii. 14.) " For 
there is nothing hid, save it should be manifested; 
neither was anything made secret, but that it should 
come to light." (Mark iv. 22, R. V.) " Each man's 
work shall be made manifest, for they shall declare 
it, because it is revealed in fire." (1 Cor. iii. 13, 
R. V.) 

Now we see it is idle to think that anything that 
is impressed upon the memory is ever obliterated. 
We may seem to forget things here, but it is only 
the temporary loss of power to recall for the mo- 
ment the thing which we say we have forgotten. 
We have the testimony of men who were rescued 



148 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

from drowning, who, when resuscitated, said that 
the thought of everything that . they had done in 
their life came rushing into the mind with the ve- 
locity of lightning ; and there is no doubt but that 
when the soul is freed from the trammels of the 
body, its capacities and activities will be immeasur- 
ably enhanced, and that it will acquire knowledge 
by intuition ad infinitum. For, as St. Paul says, in 
I Cor. xiii. 12 (R. V.), " For now we see in a mirror, 
darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in part ; 
but then shall I know even as also I have been 
known." 

What a trying ordeal this is for the mind of man 
to contemplate ; who would be willing to have his 
heart revealed here to his most intimate friend? 
but then " each man's work will be made manifest : 
for they shall declare it, because it is revealed in 
fire." Dear reader, let us entreat you ever to have 
and exercise a conscience void of offence toward 
God and toward man, so that when we shall appear 
before the judgment-seat of Christ we may be ac- 
cepted of Him, having our hearts sprinkled by the 
blood of Christ, and our conscience purged from 
dead works ; to serve the living God ; and that we 



JUDGMENT. i 4 g 



may be presented by Him faultless before the pres- 
ence of His glory with exceeding joy, and not 
have occasion to " say to the mountains and rocks, 
Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that 
sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the 
Lamb." 



13* 



150 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



CONSUMMATION OF THE 
AGES. 

It is in accordance with reason and philosophy 
that every material thing that has had a beginning 
must have an end ; for there can be no end without 
a beginning, and no beginning without an end. 
And we know from the Scriptures that the earth has 
had a beginning (Gen i. i) : "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth;" therefore it 
must have an end; but when that end is to come 
"no man knoweth, nor the angels in heaven, but 
God only." 

Perhaps there is no subject in the Bible so in- 
definitely stated, and, we may add, none that men 
have been so anxious to know, as to the time when 
the world would cease to move in its course. If we 
go back to the time when Christ was on earth, we 
find this same curiosity displayed on the part of His 



CONSUMMATION OF THE AGES. 151 

disciples : " Master, tell us, what shall be the sign 
of Thy coming, and of the end of the world ?" 

He evades the direct answer by answering them 
thus : " Take heed that no man lead you astray ;" 
and goes on to tell them that many false prophets 
will arise, and if they do not take heed they will 
lead them astray. So it has been ever since, down 
to the present time, for every few years there have 
been some false prophets, who have alarmed super- 
stitious people with their startling announcements 
that the world is about coming to an end. " But 
the end is not yet." 

Now let us see what the Scriptures really tell 
us about Eschatology. 

There are many passages of Scripture which have 
been used by the Second Adventists on this subject, 
and if read literally these seem to teach that the 
time is approaching when Christ will come person- 
ally in the clouds of heaven, with the angels, and 
with the sounding of a great trumpet; and the 
world is to be dissolved with fervent heat, etc. 

We endeavored to show in our arguments on the 
resurrection and the judgment that most of these 
passages of Scripture used in support of the visible 



152 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

personal coming of Christ and the destruction of the 
world are figurative expressions (which abound in 
the Bible) to express spiritual things ; and, in fact, 
that the greater part of the Bible is made up of 
types, and symbols, and tropes, which style of 
speech obtained in the early periods, and prevails 
even to this day among the Orientals. Losing sight 
of this fact is, no doubt, the reason why so many 
errors have crept into the church ; for, as we had 
occasion to remark in former articles, if we persist 
in reading the Bible literally we get into inextricable 
confusion, and can prove from Scripture almost any- 
thing, no matter how absurd it may be. 

We will now notice some passages of Scripture 
which seemingly speak of the destruction of the ma- 
terial world, and in doing this we will necessarily be 
obliged to repeat much which we have said before 
in treating of the resurrection and the judgment. 

We quote first from 2 Peter iii. 10 : " But the day 
of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in 
the which the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; 
the earth also and the works that are therein shall 
be burned up." 



CONSUMMATION OF THE AGES. 



153 



Here is a strong passage, and if read literally it 
does teach the imminent and complete destruction 
of the earth and all things therein ; but if we read 
it in connection with the context, we see that Peter 
is warning the people against false teachers who 
were preaching damnable heresies, "walking after 
their own lusts," and saying, " Where is the promise 
of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all 
things continue as they were from the beginning 
of the creation." Therefore be not alarmed at these 
preachers of righteousness and the judgment to 
come, but enjoy the world and " fulfil the lusts of 
the flesh ;" " eat, drink, and be merry, for to-mor- 
row we die." 

A very enticing teaching this for the carnally 
minded, of which we have an intimation in this 
chapter that these people were so, for we read in chap- 
ter ii. 14-15, that some unstable souls were beguiled 
and forsook the right way, and went astray, follow- 
ing the way of Balaam, who loved the ways of 
unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity by 
a dumb ass. 

He then goes on to warn them of the evil conse- 
quences which would follow if they listened to the 



154 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

enticing and seductive words of these corrupt 
teachers, assuring them, that although judgment 
against an evil work may not be speedily executed, 
yet it was sure to overtake them, like the judgments 
executed against the wicked inhabitants of Sodom 
and Gomorrah, and reminds them of the antedilu- 
vians, who, being warned by Noah of the impending 
ruin that would overtake them unless they repented, 
yet mocked and despised Noah's warning for one 
hundred and twenty years; but in due time the 
floods came, and the rain descended and destroyed 
all except those who were in the Ark of Safety. 

Now, although this passage that we have quoted 
may have reference to the final dissolution of the 
universe, yet we do not think it was the chief 
thought that the Apostle Peter wished to impress 
upon the minds of the people to whom he wrote, 
for he says in the next verse, " Seeing then that all 
these things shall be dissolved, what manner of 
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and 
godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the 
coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens 
being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat ?" 



CONSUMMATION OF THE AGES. 



155 



Now if the apostle meant a literal destruction by- 
fire of the heavens and the earth, it would not surely 
be a thing to be earnestly desired by them, as he 
enjoins upon them ; but he goes on in the next 
verse, " Nevertheless we, according to His promise, 
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." " Wherefore, beloved, see- 
ing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye 
may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and 
blameless." 

Now we begin to see the reason why they should 
earnestly desire and look for the coming of the day 
of God, viz., because of the promise of a new heaven 
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, 
and that they may be found of Him in peace with- 
out spot and blameless. 

Now if we turn to Isa. lxv. 17, 18, we see that 
God had given this promise of a new heaven and 
new earth : 

" For, behold, I create new heavens and a new 
earth : and the former shall not be remembered, nor 
come to mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever 
in that which I create : for, behold, I create Jerusa- 
lem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." Now we see 



156 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

cause for rejoicing, (i.e.) Jerusalem (the church) was 
to be redeemed from the bondage of sin and idolatry 
into which she had fallen, and be established in new 
principles of righteousness, and Zion shall put on 
her strength and her beautiful garments of right- 
eousness, and "break forth into joy; for the Lord 
hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jeru- 
salem" (the church). 

This is the new heavens and new earth which God 
had promised to create, and which was accomplished 
after the old Jewish church had come to an end, and 
Christ had established a new church (i.e., the Chris- 
tian church), with new rules or principles, which are 
so much superior that the "former shall not be 
remembered, nor come to mind." These new prin- 
ciples on which the Christian church is established 
are given in Matt, v., vi., vii. chapters, called " Christ's 
Sermon on the Mount." Again we read in Ps. lxxv. 
3, " The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dis- 
solved. I bear up the pillars of it." Mark you, this 
passage does not say the earth shall be dissolved at 
some future time, but are dissolved. Again we read 
in Isa. li. 16, "And I have put my words in thy 
mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of 



CONSUMMATION OF THE AGES. 



157 



mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the 
foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou 
art my people." 

Now we do not suppose any one will insist upon a 
literal reading of this passage, for it would be con- 
trary to common sense to suppose that God would 
plant the heavens and lay foundations for a new 
earth in order to put His words in their mouths, but 
he merely intended to instill into them new heavenly 
principles and lay foundations for a new moral earth, 
rendering them fit for God to say unto Zion, Thou 
art my people. A similar passage is found in Ps. 
lxxxii. 5, "They know not, neither will they un- 
derstand; they walk on in the darkness; all the 
foundations of the earth are out of course." Now 
surely no one will suppose by the phrase " All the 
foundations of the earth are out of course" that it 
means the material earth. The people were in dark- 
ness, so that they could not understand spiritual 
things, therefore the foundations of the moral earth 
were out of course. And just so it is with all whose 
spiritual eyes are darkened by ignorance and sin ; 
their foundations are out of course. 
'There are many passages in the Scriptures which 
14 



I5 8 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

speak of the last days " and the end of the world," 
which by careful reading and comparing with cor- 
relative passages will be seen to have reference to 
the end of one dispensation and the beginning of a 
new dispensation. 

We will quote a few of them in order to demon- 
strate that this is the case, and first we quote Heb. 
ix. 26, " For then must He often have suffered since 
the foundation of the world ; but now once in the 
end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin 
by the sacrifice of Himself." 

Now it must be obvious to every dispassionate 
mind that the phrase in this passage, "since the 
foundation of the world," and "the end of the 
world," is not susceptible of a literal reading, but has 
reference to the foundation of the Adamic church, 
to the end of the Jewish church. 

The apostle in this and previous chapters is con- 
trasting the old Jewish ritualistic church (which was 
but a shadow of better things to come) with the new 
Christian church, and at length rehearses the bur- 
densome rites and sacrifices which in themselves 
" could not make the comers thereunto perfect," 
** but now once in the end of the world hath He 



CONSUMMATION OF THE AGES. 



159 



appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him- 
self," showing plainly the superiority of the new 
over the old covenant or dispensation. 

The next passage we will quote is in 1 Cor. x. 1 1 : 
* Now all these things happened unto them for en- 
samples : and they are written for our admonition, 
upon whom the ends of the world are come." This 
passage shows us still more plainly that by the 
phrase " the ends of the world" is meant the end of 
the Jewish church; for the church in the wilderness 
was the pattern from which a better form of church 
was to be constructed, and all things that happened 
unto them was written for our admonition. 

We will now quote from Acts ii. 17: "And it shall 
come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour 
out of my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and 
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men 
shall see visions, and your old men shall dream 
dreams." Now if the reader will turn to the second 
chapter of Joel, twenty-eighth verse, he will see that 
this passage is a quotation of the prophecy of Joel, 
which was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, and 
which are the " last days" spoken of, and had no 
reference to the end of the material world. 



160 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

This fact is made still more obvious by the Apostle 
Paul in Heb. i. I, 2 : " God, who at sundry times and 
in divers manners spake in time past unto the 
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days 
spoken unto us by His son, whom He hath ap- 
pointed heir of all things, by whom also He made 
the worlds." The reader will notice these last days, 
not the last day. 

We will now notice the last phrase of the passage 
we have quoted from 2 Peter iii. 10, viz., " The ele- 
ments shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also 
and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 

Every studious reader of the Bible must have 
noticed the frequent mention that is made of fire 
in the Scriptures where it speaks of the destruction 
of the wicked or evil in a generic sense. Out of 
Christ " God is a consuming fire." Christ says, in 
Luke xii. 49, " I am come to send fire on the earth ; 
and what will I, if it be already kindled?" What 
earth ? Why, of course, the moral earth. We read, 
also, in Mai. iii. 2, 3, " But who can abide the day of 
His coming? and who shall stand when He appear- 
eth ? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' 
soap. And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 



CONSUMMATION OF THE AGES. 161 

silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and 
purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer 
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." 

Now we see this is the method by which God tries 
His people (" And the fire shall try every man's 
work, of what sort it is"), just as the refiner of 
silver tries the metal of what sort it is ; and it is a 
comforting thought for those who are in the furnace 
of affliction to know that God only afflicts His chil- 
dren for the purpose of purging away the dross, 
and purifying them, as silver is purified by fire ; 
and as the refiner sits and watches his metal, as 
soon as he sees his image reflected in the molten 
silver (which is an indication that the silver is puri- 
fied), he immediately takes it out of the furnace ; so 
God takes us out of the fiery trial just as soon as we 
reflect His image by bringing us to Him in humble 
submission to His will, " that we may offer unto the 
Lord an offering in righteousness." This is disci- 
plinary trial. 

But the Scriptures speak of another and more 

severe judgment by fire. When the disciplinary trial 

fails to accomplish the beneficent end of God to 

reclaim the backslider, then God gives them over 
/ 14* 



1 62 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

to a reprobate mind, to work their own destruction, 
as we read in Christ's own words in John xv. 6, " If 
a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, 
and is withered ; and men gather them, and cast 
them into the fire, and they are burned." Again, 
Matt. iii. 12, " Whose fan is in his hand, and he will 
thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat 
into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with 
unquenchable fire." Also, Matt. xiii. 50, "And 
shall cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall 
be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Matt. vii. 19, 
" Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is 
hewn down, and cast into the fire." We might ad- 
duce many more passages of like import, but we 
think this will suffice to show that fire is the symbol 
which the Scriptures use to represent the destruc- 
tion that will come upon the incorrigibly wicked ; 
and that when the Bible speaks of the destruction 
of the earth or the world, it means not the material 
earth or world but the moral world, or the wicked 
inhabitants of the earth. As we read in 2 Peter, iii. 
7, " But the heavens and the earth, which are now, 
by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto 
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of 



CONSUMMATION OF THE AGES. 163 

ungodly men." Now no one will suppose that God 
is reserving all the heavenly bodies (which are in- 
numerable) and the material earth for destruction by 
fire because of the wickedness of ungodly men ; 
what have the heavenly bodies or the earth done to 
merit such a complete annihilation ? Is the earth or 
the stars responsible for the wickedness of ungodly 
men ? Preposterous ; it is this reading the Scriptures 
literally which has been the occasion of so much 
scepticism, and caused the enemies of religion to 
blaspheme all that is sacred and holy in the Bible. 
" The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." 
Now we think we have said enough on this sub- 
ject to demonstrate to every dispassionate mind that 
the general notion that the material heavens and the 
earth are to be destroyed by fire on account of the 
wickedness of ungodly men is erroneous, and can- 
not be proved by the Scriptures if read in a spiritual 
sense, which is the only true way to read the Bible. 
Christ said to His disciples, " My words are life, and 
they are spirit." 

But some will say, Was not the antediluvian 
world destroyed by water because of the wickedness 
of the people ? and why should not God destroy 



^4 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

this earth by fire ? We answer, The material world 
was not destroyed, but the moral creation was ; 
therefore we argue that the incorrigibly wicked 
moral creation will be destroyed by fire unquench- 
able. 

It is sheer folly to speculate upon the dissolution 
of the earth, of which we have so little information. 
The only definite statement we have in the Scriptures 
is in Rev. x. 5, 6 : " And the angel which I saw stand 
upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand 
to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever 
and ever, who created heaven, and the things that 
therein are, and the earth, and the things which are 
therein, that there should be time no longer." 

Then cometh the end, but when or how " no man 
knoweth, nor the angels, but God only." 



CONCLUSION. ^5 



CONCLUSION. 

Assuming that you have read carefully and dispas- 
sionately this little book on the " Mysteries of God- 
liness," allow us to ask you, dear impenitent reader, 
what is " the conclusion of the whole matter" as re- 
gards yourself in relation to your soul's salvation. 

In the first place permit us to ask you, Do you 
believe in a future state of existence ? If not, then we 
have nothing more to say : all appeals or arguments 
concerning your soul's eternal destiny would be in 
vain ; then the death of the body ends all, and you 
die as the beasts that perish. And permit us to 
add that the lower animals have the advantage of 
you, for they are all happy and content with their 
life, but you are not ; and we appeal to your inner 
consciousness to say whether it is not so ; and we 
are compelled in verity to say in Christ's own words 
that it were "better for you that you had not been 
born" than to have had an existence with all the 
possibilities of an immortal life before you, but sadly 



1 66 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

missed the mark, and have nothing before you but 
outer darkness and despair. 

But to you who do believe that there is a future 
state of existence beyond this life, we have hope in 
addressing you, and sincerely trust that the argu- 
ments presented in this book will not have been 
written in vain ; for we assure you, dear reader, that 
this work was not undertaken without much prayer- 
ful consideration, and an earnest desire to do some 
good in the Master's name. 

The author knows how to sympathize with you, 
having experienced your honest doubts himself con- 
cerning some of the dogmas held by the Church, 
which by reason of apparent inconsistencies as con- 
tained in the creeds formulated by fallible men, have 
caused such disturbances in his mind as impelled 
him to search the Scriptures for himself, to see 
whether these things were so or not, and who, after 
thirty years of sedulous reading and study, is happy 
to say that by the illumination of the Spirit of Truth 
he has been delivered from all perplexing doubts 
concerning the great questions appertaining to the 
soul's spiritual and eternal destiny ; and if this feeble 
effort of his should, by the blessing of God, produce 



CONCLUSION. 167 



like results in you, dear reader, it would give him 
unspeakable pleasure, being convinced that if the 
great cardinal doctrines of the system of the Chris- 
tian religion were elucidated in the light of reason, 
science, and the Scriptures, there would be more 
believers in it, and this has been the aim of the 
author to do in this little work. As to how he has 
succeeded in this respect you must judge for your- 
self. 

We have been treating of mysteries, but not the 
least of the mysteries which meets us in our daily 
walk and conversation is the mystery of the obsti- 
nacy of thoughtful men's minds, antagonizing them- 
selves against Christianity, as if it was something to 
be dreaded and avoided, whereas a little consider- 
ation would show them that their soul's eternal 
destiny is involved in it. 

Some years ago when gold was discovered in 
California, and as soon as the news was published 
abroad, men became excited with the idea of gaining 
riches without the slow process of toil, and hastened 
with pick and shovel and pan, making long and 
perilous pilgrimages, at the risk of health and life, 
across an uninhabited country, subjected to all man- 



1 68 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

ner of discomfort, and all for the purpose of gain- 
ing a little sordid gold, and riches which perish in 
the using; but tell them of more enduring riches, 
"the Pearl of great price," and they will turn away 
with disdain, uninterested in you, as if you were 
taunting them. Is not this a mystery ? "I speak 
as to the wise, — judge ye what I say." 

If you have read the article on God's sovereignty 
and man's free agency, you must have seen that the 
responsibility of your soul's eternal interests de- 
pends upon your choice, and if you are eventually lost 
you will have no one to blame but yourself. How 
can you endure the thought of being lost ! lost ! and 
being associated with the damned ! all the vile and 
wicked spirits in an endless hell of torment and 
misery, " where their worm dieth not, and their fire 
is not quenched ;" and then to reflect and suffer the 
agony of that fearful word, remorse ! remorse ! I 
might have been saved from this torment of hell if 
I had only heeded the warnings given me in time, 
but I would not; I have set at naught all the coun- 
sels given me, and now I am tormented in this flame. 
" Oh what eternal horrors hang around the second 
death !" 



CONCLUSION. 



169 



Think not this is a fancy sketch to frighten you 
and work on your fears; no, my friend. If what 
you have been reading in this book be truths, to 
which, we take for granted, you have given your as- 
sent, then this must be the inevitable outcome of 
those who neglect the great salvation which God 
has provided for you. This matter of your soul's 
salvation is an intensely practical and personal one 
for you to consider, and you must attend to it your- 
self; friends may counsel you, and entreat with you, 
but you must act yourself. We have endeavored in 
the various articles in this book to show you the 
way to come to Christ, to whom alone you must go 
for salvation, for there is no other name under 
heaven given among men whereby we can be saved 
except the name of Jesus, our Saviour. We have 
also shown you that God has done all He possibly 
could do in the redemptive scheme of salvation, and 
it only remains for you to do your part in working 
out your own salvation. Will you do it? 

Were it not the lamentable, undeniable fact which 

confronts us every day of our lives we should not 

believe that it requires so much persuasion to induce 

sinners to accept so free salvation as is offered in the 

h 15 



I jo MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

Gospel ; but so it is ; and God, who knows the obsti- 
nacy of the human heart, out of pity for us in our 
lost and ruined condition, came down to earth and 
became a man in order to gain our confidence, and 
lift us up out of our fallen nature by taking upon 
Himself our sins and the curse incurred by us, did 
actually suffer all the penalty Himself in our stead. 

That you may more fully realize this fact go with 
us, dear friend, first to Gethsemane and beholS the 
Saviour. 

Sorrowful even unto death, being burdened with 
the sins of the world, hear Him praying : " Father, 
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," but it 
was not possible. He must drink it to the dregs, for 
it was for this purpose that He came into the world, 
and having no response His agony of suffering be- 
came more intense, until He sweat as it were great 
drops of blood falling to the ground. He goes 
again to a secluded place in the garden and prays 
again, " O, my Father, if this cup may not pass 
away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done!' 
Then an angel comes to comfort Him in the still- 
ness of the night ; but lo ! see down the road ; what 
means that glimmering of lights in the distance? 



CONCLUSION. 



171 



Hark ! We hear the clashing of arms and the rough 
tramp of feet as it were soldiers coming up the hill ; 
nearer and nearer they come until in full vision ; we 
behold they are a band of Roman soldiers, armed 
with swords and staves. But for what purpose have 
these soldiers come at this hour of the night ? Can 
it be there are any thieves or robbers here to arrest? 
Besides, there is Judas, one of Christ's own disciples. 
This is strange. Let us follow and see what they 
mean to do. Onward they go through the laby- 
rinth of trees, when suddenly they come to a halt, 
and a voice is heard, — " Whom seek ye ?" A back 
movement is made, and they fall flat on their faces 
to the ground. Again He asked them, "Whom seek 
ye?" They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth." 
Then Judas, according to a prearranged plan, stepped 
forward and saluted Him with a kiss. " Hail, Mas- 
ter !" This was the signal by which they were to 
know Him whom they sought. So they bound Him 
and led him forth to Caiaphas the High Priest. But 
Peter could not stand this, and under the impulse of 
his feelings drew his sword and cut off the ear of 
the servant of the High Priest. But Jesus rebuked 
him, and commanded that he should put up his 



172 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



sword into its scabbard, for if He chose He could 
command twelve legions of angels, and there was no 
power on earth that could take Him against His 
will. 

But He must needs go to Jerusalem, so we will 
follow and see what further troubles await Him 
there. So after they had bound Him they led Him 
forth down the steep and rugged road across the 
Brook Kedron to Caiaphas the High Priest. But 
you ask, What does this mean ? Why did Judas, 
one of His own disciples, so shamefully betray Him 
into the hands of His enemies ? And His other 
disciples who professed such ardent attachment to 
Him as even to suffer death for Him, why do they 
not rally now and rescue Him out of their hands ? 
Why have they all forsaken Him and fled like a 
band of craven cowards, and He is left alone to with- 
stand the gibes and jeers of the rabble crowd, and 
the false accusations of His persecutors ? Ah, dear 
friend, this was all to fulfil the Scriptures. Isaiah 
said hundreds of years ago that " He trod the wine- 
press alone," and did not Jesus say at the Supper 
last evening that one of His own disciples would 
betray Him, and that the others would forsake Him 



CONCLUSION. 



173 



when the trying moment came? and even that 
ardent, valiant Peter, who in his impetuosity cut off 
the ear of the servant of Caiaphas at the first attempt 
at arrest, even he did cower and deny Him before a 
little maid before cock-crowing this morning. 

But here we are at the house of Caiaphas the 
High Priest, who, with the blood-thirsty Sanhedrim, 
have sat up all night awaiting the arrival of his emis- 
saries with their prisoner, who are all ready to hear 
or rather to condemn the prisoner without a formal 
trial, for they had prejudged the cause, and had 
made up their minds in advance that He must die ; 
for " they hated Him without a cause." Now they 
go on with their mock trial. Caiaphas, addressing 
Jesus, asked Him "of His disciples and of His doc- 
trine." Jesus answered him, " I spake openly to the 
world ; I ever taught in the synagogue and in the 
temple whither the Jews always resort ; and in secret 
have I said nothing." 

Then the whole council of chief priests sought 
false witnesses to testify against Jesus, and many 
came; some said one thing and some another, so as 
yet there was no definite accusation ; " but after- 
ward came two, and said, This man said, I am able 

15* 



* 74 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in 
three days." Here is a grave charge indeed — and 
perverted at that — on which to try a man for his life ; 
but anything will do to begin with, for it is. a fore- 
gone conclusion with them that He must be put to 
death this day ; and we have no time to lose, for it is 
already the dawn of the morning. 

The High Priest becoming impatient, " stood up, 
and said unto Him, Answerest thou nothing? But 
Jesus held His peace." Of course : what accusation 
have they brought against Him that calls for any 
reply on His part? Jesus had on one occasion pub- 
licly said unto them, " Destroy this temple, and in 
three days I will raise it up." " But He spake of the 
temple of His body," signifying by this His death 
and resurrection ; but this poor, ignorant, deluded 
witness perverted His meaning, and it would be like 
as Jesus said on another occasion, — casting pearls 
before swine to make any reply to this silly accusa- 
tion. 

But the High Priest failing in this first attempt to 
find anything by which to convict Jesus, makes 
another onslaught thus : " I adjure Thee by the living 
God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, 



CONCLUSION. 175 



the Son of God." Now here is a question which 
Jesus is bound to reply to, and which He has on all 
fitting occasions publicly announced, and which was 
testified to by the Father at His baptism and trans- 
figuration by a voice from heaven, saying, " This is 
my beloved Son ; hear ye Him." So " Jesus saith 
unto him, Thou hast said," — i.e., I am the Christ, I 
am the Messiah of whom the prophet Isaiah wrote, 
" He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a 
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth 
not His mouth." " Then the High Priest rent his 
garments, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy ; what 
further need have we of witnesses ? Behold, now 
ye have heard the blasphemy, what think ye ? They 
answered and said, He is worthy of death." 

Now they think they have got Him on a charge 
of blasphemy, making Himself equal with God ; but 
the trouble now is, they have no law by which to 
put Him to death except by stoning, and that will 
not suit their purpose ; besides, stoning is not severe 
enough to wreak their devilish hatred on Him. We 
must see if we cannot trump up a charge by which 
we can deliver Him over to the Roman governor, for 
the Romans have a penalty for capital crimes which 



iy6 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

is more shameful than stoning. But what charge 
shall we prefer? He has said that He was the 
Christ, the Son of God, but the Roman governor 
cares not for that or our religion ; the Romans 
regard us Jews as a sect of religious fanatics ; so this 
charge will not avail to make out a case of capital 
offence. Just here a happy thought strikes one of 
the rabbis. He has said that He was the Messiah, 
and you know that the Messiah which we look for 
to come is to be our king; who is to deliver us out 
of the yoke of bondage to the Romans, and re- 
establish our nationality. So it is only necessary to 
say to the Roman governor, Here is a man who 
claims to be the King of the Jews, and of course 
that is treason against Caesar, and he will be bound 
to convict Him and put Him to death by cruci- 
fixion, which is the most horrid and shameful death 
that can be inflicted on a man, and is only resorted 
to in cases of extreme turpitude. 

Now it is morning, and this is the preparation day 
for the Sabbath, to-morrow. So they bind Jesus, 
and in haste " they led Him away and delivered Him 
up to Pilate, the Roman governor." Now, dear 
friend, let us follow and see what next they will do 



CONCLUSION. 



177 



unto our Saviour. We arrive at the magnificent 
royal palace of Pilate. There is no time lost in 
preparing for the hearing, for Pilate is already in the 
judgment hall ; but these self-righteous persecutors 
of Jesus do not enter into the palace lest they might 
be defiled by coming in contact with the heathen 
Procurator, and then they could not eat the pass- 
over. So they stay outside on the tessellated pave- 
ment. " Pilate therefore went out unto them and 
said, What accusation bring ye against this man ? 
They answered and said unto him, if this man were 
not an evil-doer we should not have delivered Him 
up unto thee. Pilate therefore said unto them, Take 
him yourselves, and judge Him according to your 
law. The Jews said unto him, It is not lawful for 
us to put any man to death." 

Dear friend, did you hear that? Now we see 
the reason why these blood-thirsty religious bigots 
bring Jesus to the Roman governor, viz., to do that 
which they had the will but not the power to do. 
But what is the accusation ye bring against this 
man? asked Pilate again. "And they began to 
accuse Him, saying, We found this man perverting 
our nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, 



178 MYSTERIES OF GODLIAESS. 

and saying that He Himself is Christ a King." 
Now we see how they have improved on the accusa- 
tion first agreed upon, by adding that He was a 
stirrer up of sedition and disloyal to Caesar. Now 
they have a charge which, if substantiated, must 
eventuate in conviction for high treason, the penalty 
for which is death by crucifixion. 

Now when Pilate heard that the indictment was 
for treason against Caesar he began to take more 
interest in the case, and leaving the crowd outside 
he " entered again into the palace, and called Jesus 
unto him," for the purpose of examining Him pri- 
vately, "and said unto Him, Art thou the King of 
the Jews?" "And He answering saith unto him, 
Thou Sayest." Mark, the question which Pilate put 
to Jesus was simply, art thou the King of the Jews? 
not dost thou claim to be a king in opposition to 
Caesar, for Pilate cared little about the Jews or their 
ceremonial laws or customs, but merely to keep them 
in subjection to his rule, and would do anything to 
please them that was not inconsistent with Caesar's 
jurisdiction, therefore His confession that He was the 
King of the Jews was no cause for alarm. Besides 
He told him in the private interview that " His 



CONCLUSION. 



179 



kingdom is not of this world," and what does a 
sensuous-minded heathen know or care about a 
spiritual kingdom ? For when Pilate had a good 
opportunity of learning something about Christ's 
spiritual kingdom in private when he asked Jesus if 
He was a king, He answered, " I am a king. To 
this end have I been born, and to this end I am 
come into the world, that I should bear witness unto 
the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth 
my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth ?" 
O what a pity that he did not stay a little longer, 
and he would have got his answer from one who is 
truth itself. But "when he had said this he went 
out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find 
no crime in Him." 

Now, friends, you ask us if Pilate, after two ex- 
aminations, says he finds no crime in Him, why does 
he not now discharge Him at once, as by his own 
confession He is innocent of the accusation the Jews 
have brought against Him? True, but this Pro- 
curator is a weak vacillating minded man, and he is 
afraid of the Jews, and now see he is going to try 
the policy of compromising with them by adopting 
a custom which had long obtained among the Jews 



180 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

at their passover. Now hear what he proposes to 
do in order to pacify them and save Jesus from 
death, and get rid of this troublesome matter. This 
is what he says to the Jews : " I find no fault in 
Him. But ye have a custom, that I should release 
unto you one at the passover : will ye therefore that 
I release unto you the King of the Jews ?" This 
was a happy thought on the part of Pilate, but it 
utterly miscarried and failed of the mark, for it only 
exasperated the Jews to a more determinate effort to 
have Jesus put to death. So " they cried out there- 
fore again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now 
Barabbas was a robber." They would prefer to have 
a robber released from custody in place of the inno- 
cent and gentle Jesus. Any one but Jesus will suit 
these hard-hearted religious bigots. 

Pilate at seeing that his proposition had failed to 
satisfy the Jews was sorely perplexed, and at this 
juncture he received a message from his wife, say- 
ing, " Have thou nothing to do with that righteous 
man, for I have suffered many things this day in a 
dream because of him." This so worked upon his 
evil and superstitious conscience that it caused him 
to make another effort to get them to consent to 



CONCLUSION. 181 



have him release Jesus instead of Barabbas. And he 
asked them again, "Whether of the twain will ye 
that I release unto you ? And they said Barabbas. 
Pilate saith unto them, What then shall I do unto 
Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say, Let 
Him be crucified. And he said, Why, what evil 
hath He done? But they cried out exceedingly, 
saying, Let Him be crucified V " So when Pilate 
saw that he prevailed nothing, but rather that a 
tumult was arising, he took water, and washed his 
hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent 
of the blood of this righteous man : see ye to it." 

Poor weak-minded, vacillating Pilate ! He think- 
ing that he could ease his troubled conscience by 
resorting to a Jewish custom, by washing his hands 
before them with water. But this was. another 
failure of his expedients. He would have them to 
understand that he was innocent of this righteous 
man's blood, and would throw the responsibility on 
them, and they are only too eager to take it. For 
hear their reply to Pilate : " And all the people an- 
swered and said, His blood be on us, and on our 
children." 

Oh what a terrible responsibility they assumed in 
f 16 



1 82 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

rejecting their Messiah ! and truly His blood has 
been upon them and on their children, and will con- 
tinue to be until the restoration of the Jews. And 
how truly were Christ's own words fulfilled which He 
spake unto His disciples a year or so before. (Mark 
viii. 31.) "And he began to teach them that the son 
of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by 
the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and 
be killed." And also by the Prophet Isaiah hun- 
dreds of years before (Isa. liii. 3) : " He is despised 
and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and ac- 
quainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces 
from Him ; He was despised, and we esteemed Him 
not." What a marvellous fulfilment of prophecy 
this was which these hard-hearted Jews were uncon- 
sciously enacting. Dear friend, we wish you to notice 
carefully as they proceed in this trial of our Saviour 
how wondrously, though unconsciously, every mi- 
nutia of it was foretold by Christ and the prophets, 
in order that you may be convinced when the sequel 
•comes that He who is the principal in this tragedy 
is none other but the Christ, the Son of God. 

Now when the Jews saw that Pilate was unwilling 
to pass sentence of death on one whom he could find 



CONCLUSION. 



183 



no fault in, " they were the more urgent, saying, He 
stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, 
and beginning from Galilee even unto this place." 
" But when Pilate heard it he asked whether the 
man was a Galilean ? And when he knew that He 
was of Herod's jurisdiction he sent Him unto Herod, 
who himself also was at Jerusalem in these days." 

Now this circumstance afforded Pilate another 
chance to rid himself of this troublesome business, 
so he gladly sent Jesus to Herod, whose palace was 
close by. And now let us follow and see what 
Herod will do, and whether he will allow such in- 
dignities to Jesus as Caiaphas and Pilate did in their 
courts. " Now when Herod saw Jesus he was ex- 
ceeding glad, for he was of a long time desirous to 
see Him, because he had heard concerning Him, and 
he hoped to see some miracle done by Him. And 
He questioned Him in many words, but He an- 
swered him nothing." " And the chief priests and 
the scribes stood, vehemently accusing Him." 

Herod was exceedingly glad to have an oppor- 
tunity of having a little sport with one of whom he 
heard so much in Galilee, whose fame as a miracle- 
worker was spread abroad throughout his jurisdic- 



184 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

tion, and now as he has Him in his power before 
him he is desirous of having Jesus amuse him and 
his court with some of those miracles of which he 
had heard so much. So he plies Him with many 
words to induce Him to perform some of His won- 
derful miracles, but all to no effect. " He answered 
him nothing." 

Chagrined at the utter failure of their hopes to 
get Jesus to work miracles to amuse their idle curi- 
osity, they turn on Him with the same bitter hatred 
that they manifested in the courts of Caiaphas and 
Pilate. "And Herod with his soldiers set Him at 
naught, and mocked Him, and arraying Him in 
gorgeous apparel sent Him back to Pilate." And 
here let us notice a little touch of human nature and 
irony as the narrative reads, " And Herod and Pilate 
became friends with each other that very day, for 
before they were at enmity between themselves." 
These two potentates were bitter enemies as regards 
worldly matters, but so soon as a question of spir- 
itual interest is raised they at once strike hands and 
become friends, and make common cause against 
Christ. And so it has ever been with the perverse 
heart of man. " The light has come into the world, 



CONCLUSION. 185 



but men love darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds are evil." " The natural heart is at 
enmity against God." The whole world is divided 
into two classes, viz. : for Christ and against Christ. 

Now they bring Jesus back again to Pilate, for 
they are particularly anxious that the Roman gov- 
ernor should convict Him, in order that He may be 
crucified, and nothing short of the ignominious cross 
will satisfy their brutal hatred of the meek and lowly 
Jesus. 

Pilate was disappointed in seeing the crowd re- 
turning with Jesus, as he had hoped that by sending 
Him to Herod that he had got rid of this trouble- 
some trial, and he is a little irritated, and " called 
together the chief priests and the rulers of the 
people, and said unto them, Ye brought unto me 
this man as one that perverteth the people, and be- 
hold, I, having examined Him before you, found no 
fault in this man touching those things whereof ye 
accuse Him. No, nor yet Herod, for he sent Him 
back unto us ; and behold, nothing worthy of death 
hath been done by Him." 

Now you ask us, dear friend, is it not strange 

that after even that wicked Herod having found no 

16* 



1 86 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

fault in Jesus worthy of death that Pilate does not 
acquit Him ? Yes, it is strange, and if Pilate had 
any moral fortitude in him he would do so ; but he 
is afraid of the Jews, lest if he should release Jesus 
they would stir up an insurrection among the people, 
and the news having reached the ears of Caesar, his 
master at Rome, might incur his displeasure and 
consequent removal ; and what signifies the sacrifice 
of one innocent life of a hated Jew to the peaceful 
relations with one to whom his is dependent for his 
position in the Roman government ? 

Pilate, therefore, in his dilemma resolves upon 
one more expedient to appease the wrath of the 
Jews against Jesus, by a mode of punishment ex- 
tremely barbarous and brutal, so much so that the 
Roman law interdicted it to be inflicted on a Roman 
citizen ; but as Jesus is a despised Nazarene, the 
thought occurred to him that it would be a good 
thing to try scourging; then, surely these hard- 
hearted Jews will relent, and consent to a release of 
Jesus. Pilate, therefore, after once more stating to 
the crowd that he found no fault in Him worthy of 
death, commanded his soldiers to take Jesus and 
scourge Him. 



CONCLUSION. 187 



Now, dear friend, if you can bear to witness one 
of the most barbarous and revolting scenes that the 
cruelty of man ever devised for inflicting punish- 
ment on a fellow-being, we will follow these rough 
soldiers into the praetorium or court-yard. Now the 
soldiers strip Him and bare His back to the waist, 
and bending Him forward over a support, one of 
the soldiers assigned to perform this horrid duty 
took a scourge made of a number of ropes or 
leather twisted into thongs, with pieces of acorn- 
shaped lead fastened at the ends, and as these hard- 
hearted Roman soldiers were ever ready to vent 
their spleen on the hated Jews, this was a good 
opportunity for them ; and as they had no specific 
command as to the number of stripes they should 
inflict, they only ceased when they tired of the cruel 
performance. So excruciating were the sufferings of 
scourging that some could not endure it, and died 
of exhaustion. Yet Jesus endured it without com- 
plaint or a single murmur from His lips. You say, 
Is not this awfully cruel and wicked on the part of 
these heathen soldiers? Yes. Verily, it is. But 
the prophet Isaiah said hundreds of years ago that 
Christ was to suffer all this cruel treatment for our 



1 88 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

sins (Isa. liii. 5). " He was wounded for our trans- 
gressions ; he was bruised for our iniquities ; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with 
His stripes we are healed." It is well to bear this 
in mind, dear friend, for however difficult it may be 
to realize, it is a fact, as we have tried to show you 
in our article on the " Atonement," — which we trust 
you have not forgotten, — that Jesus Christ is our sin 
bearer. 

Well, are these heathen soldiers not content yet 
with the severe scourging they have inflicted on the 
meek and suffering Jesus ? No ; they must indulge 
in a little episode at mockery. They heard Him 
say or acknowledge before Pilate that He was a 
king. So they gathered together their band, and 
stripped Him of His abba, or outer garment, and put 
on Him one of the soldier's scarlet cloaks, while 
another makes it his business to run out in the gar- 
den and pluck some twigs from a thorn-bush and 
wreathe them in the form of a crown, then press 
the sharp points of the thorns into His head; 
another gets a long reed and places that in His 
right hand for a sceptre. Now " they bowed down 
before Him and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of 



CONCLUSION. 189 



the Jews !" and this is not all yet, for " they spat 
upon Him, and took the reed and smote Him on 
the head." 

When they get through with their insults and 
indignities heaped upon Jesus, they bring Him out 
again before Pilate and the people, wearing the 
derisive crown of thorns and the mock attire of 
a king. Exhausted and worn by the horrible 
scourging at the hands of these ruthless soldiers, 
Pilate makes another effort to prevail upon the Jews 
to consent to His release. The pitiable sight of 
Jesus has now softened even the hard heart of this 
heathen judge, and, surely, if there is a grain of 
humanity left in the hearts of these religious Jews 
they will now relent. So " Pilate went out again 
and saith unto them, Behold, I bring Him out to 
you, that ye may know that I find no crime in 
Him." And Pilate directing the attention of the 
Jews to Jesus who stood beside him, — Behold the 
man ! He appeals to their humanity, — behold the 
piteous condition of the man ! Are you not satisfied 
now? Has He not been punished enough, espe- 
cially as I have found no fault in Him ? But 
nothing will satisfy these religious bigots but His 



1 9 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

blood. So to the surprise of Pilate they cried out, 
saying, " Crucify Him ! Crucify Him !" " Pilate saith 
unto them, Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, 
for I find no crime in Him." Pilate did not wish to 
be made their tool to do their bidding, so he says to 
them, Take Him yourselves and crucify Him if you 
will, but I will not be your tool to do that which is 
repugnant to me. 

But Caiaphas, the spokesman of the Jews, was 
more than a match for Pilate, and they have an 
answer ready for him: "The Jews answered him, 
We have a law, and by that law He ought to die, 
because He made Himself the Son of God." 
" When Pilate, therefore, heard this saying he was 
the more afraid; and he entered into the palace 
again, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou ? But 
Jesus gave him no answer." " Pilate therefore saith 
unto Him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest 
thou not that I have power to release Thee and 
have power to crucify Thee ?" Pilate was incensed 
at the silence of Jesus, and his pride was touched 
at receiving no answer, and he reminds Him that 
His life is in his hands ; that he has power to release 
Him and power to crucify Him. But Jesus also 



CONCLUSION. 



I 9 I 



reminds him that the power which he had was 
given him by His Father from heaven, and there- 
fore he acted under a superior power, and was 
unconsciously fulfilling the decrees of the Divine 
council; and although his irresolute conduct was 
reprehensible, yet, therefore they that had delivered 
Him unto Pilate had greater sin. " Upon this Pilate 
sought to release Him." But the Jews quickly see- 
ing that Pilate was about to follow the dictates of 
his own conscience and release Jesus, were ready to 
ensnare him in a new trap ; so they the more vehe- 
mently cried out to Pilate, " If thou release this man 
thou art not Caesar's friend ; every one that maketh 
himself a king speaketh against Caesar." This was 
too much for the fickle-minded Pilate. He could 
not endure the thought of being classed among the 
enemies of Caesar, for it was to him that he owed 
his position as Procurator, and any imputation of 
disloyalty to Caesar would be fatal to him, and 
eventuate in a removal from office and perhaps ban- 
ishment in disgrace. So somewhat angered at being 
so often caught in the toils of these wily Jews, " he 
brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment 
seat," and sarcastically " said unto the Jews, Behold 



192 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



your king ! They therefore cried, Away with Him, 
away with Him ! crucify Him !" But Pilate be- 
coming more ironic, What! "shall I crucify your 
king ?" " The chief priests answered, We have no 
king but Caesar." This was too much for Pilate; 
they have gained their ends. So " he delivered Him 
unto them to be crucified." 

And now, dear friend, we know you must be 
heart-sick and tired of these heart-rending scenes, — 
as we have been in attendance all night, and it is 
now nine o'clock in the morning, — but when we in- 
vited you to go with us to Gethsemane we had it in 
our mind to take you from thence to Jerusalem ; and 
now, as Pilate has delivered Jesus up to be crucified, 
we are desirous that you should bear witness of that 
which we told you before, viz., that God has done all 
He could for the salvation of sinners ; therefore let 
us follow the crowd with Jesus to Calvary, — which 
is a hillock outside of the gates, — where the cruci- 
fixion is to take place, and then, after seeing the end, 
we are sure you will agree with us. 

It will take the soldiers perhaps an hour to get 
ready for the march, for they have two robbers con- 
demned to death in the prison, and in order to make 



CONCLUSION. 



193 



the execution yet more shameful they are going to 
crucify them with Jesus, one on the right side and 
the other on the left; and we tell you, friend, in 
advance, that it will require all the moral fortitude 
you possess to witness unmoved the tragedy of the 
crucifixion. 

Now Pilate's cohorts, under the command of the 
centurion, are ready for the march. A quaternion 
of soldiers is assigned to each one of the victims as 
executioners and guards to prevent any attempt at 
rescue, and a squad of soldiers in the front and rear; 
the condemned victims in the middle. Jesus has 
been divested of the mock scarlet cloak, and His 
abba put on. Around the necks of each of the 
victims is suspended a white painted board inscribed 
with large black letters stating the crimes for which 
they are to suffer the penalty of death ; and now they 
move off on the sad march to the place of execution, 
followed by a great crowd of people, some for the 
purpose of glutting the hatred which they bear to 
the meek and innocent One, and a few out of sym- 
pathy. 

They had not proceeded far in the narrow, dusty 

streets, with the hot vertical sun beating down on 
1 n 17 



194 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



their heads, before one of the guards noticed that 
Jesus — faint and worn, and back lacerated by the 
cruel scourging — could not keep pace with the com- 
pany on the march, so as there happened to be a 
man coming from the country standing by the way- 
side by the name of Simon, of Cyrene, they laid hold 
on him and compelled him to bear the cross-beam 
after Jesus. Whether this was done out of compas- 
sion, or to hasten their march, we do not know, but 
may we not, dear friend, from this incident apply to 
ourselves a grain of comfort, viz., that in our cross- 
bearing we do not carry it alone, but that Christ 
helps us to bear it ? 

Soon following this incident another of a more 
pathetic character occurred. By this time the in- 
habitants of the city had been notified that Jesus 
was delivered up to be crucified, and they poured in 
from the cross streets great multitudes of people, 
both men and women, who bewailed and lamented 
for Him out of true sympathy, for no one, except 
they had hearts of stone, could witness this sad sight 
without weeping. This expression of sympathy, 
coming from the source it did, was a grateful episode 
to the tender heart of Jesus, who had heard nothing 



CONCLUSION. 



195 



but the ribald curses and reproaches of the digni- 
taries of the Jews, as well as the rabble crowd, and 
must have touched His heart, for His lips had been 
almost silent during the mock-trial, and He had sub- 
mitted to the cruel scourging without a murmur; 
but now He speaks from His heart a far deeper 
sympathy for them than they had any appreciation 
of, and says unto them, " Daughters of Jerusalem, 
weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for 
your children." (i.e.) Weep not for Me only, for My 
sufferings, though intense and heavy to be borne, 
yet they are momentary, and will soon be over, and 
I. shall enter into My glory which I had with the 
Father before I came into the world to fulfil this very 
mission which I am now accomplishing, for it was 
for the joy that was set before Me that I endure the 
cross and despise the shame. So weep not for me, 
but weep for yourselves and your children, (i.e.) the 
calamities that are to come upon Jerusalem for their 
rejection of the Messiah. I came unto mine own, 
but they receive me not, and now I endure all these 
sufferings and indignities heaped upon Me, to redeem 
you from the bondage of Rabbinism and the burden- 
some yoke of traditional ritualism, and now I suffer 



l 9 6 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

the ignominious death of the cross by the hands of 
the very people I came to save ! Is not this love 
beyond degree ? 

Now, dear friend, we have arrived at Calvary, 
where you will witness the most awful spectacle that 
ever was enacted in the history of the world, viz. : 
The Lord of life and glory, the Creator of the world, 
put to death by the wicked hands of men, in the 
most shameful and cruel manner that ever was de- 
vised by the ingenuity of man, and at which, as we 
will see, material nature stood aghast. 

Immediately on arrival the executioners take from 
the necks of the victims the boards on which were 
written the crimes for which they were condemned, 
and nail them on the top of the upright post of the 
cross. Jesus had suspended on His neck the in- 
scription which Pilate had caused to be written in 
revenge to the Jews for wrenching from him the 
judgment of crucifixion, and also to ridicule or 
taunt them for crucifying their rejected king, and 
this they nailed on the top of His cross. The in- 
scription read, — "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of 
the Jews." But this did not suit the dignitaries of 
the temple, and forthwith they sent a deputation to 



CONCLUSION. jgy 



Pilate, saying, Write not the King of the Jews, but 
that He said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate was 
not to be influenced any more by these hated Jews, 
so he merely answered them in the laconic words, 
" What I have written, I have written." 

Now the rough heathen soldiers take Jesus, and 
after stripping Him of His clothes (except a linen 
cloth around His loins) stretch Him on the cross 
which is lying on the ground, and with huge iron 
nails drive them through the palms of His hands 
and feet, and then lift Him, nailed to the cross, in an 
upright position, the lower end planted in the ground, 
to be gazed and scoffed at by the ribald crowd. 
While this was being done, and suffering the most 
excruciating agony, He, regardless of pain, breathes 
a prayer of forgiveness for these insensible perse- 
cutors : " Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do." We ask you, friend, is this human 
nature ? Ah ! you say this is divine, for none but a 
God could do this under such circumstances. This 
is Godlike. God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son to die for us, that whosoever 
believeth in Him might not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. 

17* 



198 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

One of the soldiers, who seemed to have a little 
humanity in him, sought to assuage His pain by 
offering Him a little drugged wine to drink, but He 
would not taste it. He would not do anything to 
lessen the agony of the bitter cup which His Father 
had given Him to drink ; therefore He drank it to 
the very dregs. Now the chief priests passing by 
Him began to rail on Him, wagging their heads 
and taunting Him, saying, " Thou that destroyest 
the temple and buildest it in three days, save Thy- 
self; if Thou art the Son of God come down from 
the Cross." " He saved others ; Himself He cannot 
save." " He is the King of Israel ; let Him now 
come down from the cross and we will believe on 
Him." " He trusted in God ; let Him deliver Him 
now if He desireth Him ; for He said, I am the 
Son of God." Oh, friend, He could have come 
down from the cross. He could have delivered 
Himself if He would, but if He had done so we 
could not have been saved ; for you remember 
we heard Him say in the garden of Gethsemane in 
His prayer : " O, my Father, if it be possible, let 
this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, if this cup 
may not pass away from Me except I drink it, Thy 



CONCLUSION. igg 



will be done." It was not possible, therefore, He 
did not come down from the cross and deliver Him- 
self, but carried out the will of the Father, in offer- 
ing Himself a willing sacrifice for the sins of the 
whole world, thereby accomplishing the great work 
of redemption. 

Jesus had been hanging on the cross nearly three 
hours ; meanwhile the soldiers, whose perquisites 
were the garments of the crucified ones, " took His 
garments and made four parts, to every soldier a 
part, and also the coat ; now the coat was without 
seam, woven from the top throughout. They said 
therefore to one another, Let us not rend it, but cast 
lots for it, whose it shall be." Now, dear friend, we 
want you to notice again that this trivial incident 
was also prophesied hundreds of years ago, which is 
another proof, if you need any more, that Jesus was 
the Messiah ; for although it was customary for the 
executioners of a crucifixion to take the outer gar- 
ments as their perquisites, yet this inner seamless 
robe was only worn by the priests ; and it is not likely 
that any officiating priest was ever crucified. You 
will find this prophecy recorded in twenty-second 
Psalm, eighteenth verse : " They parted my gar- 



200 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

ments among them, and upon my vesture did they 
cast lots." Is it not marvellous how scrupulously 
every prophecy concerning Christ was literally ful- 
filled even to this apparently trivial matter of casting 
lots for His seamless robe, and that, too, by a band 
of heathen soldiers, who were so unconsciously ful- 
filling the Scriptures ? Is it not marvellous that after 
all these corroborating attestations, pointing so un- 
erringly to Christ, that any one should yet doubt 
that this yesus whom we see crucified is the Messiah ? 

Jesus, just before expiring, lifting up His eyes and 
seeing His mother — who had come with the other 
faithful Marys to witness this sad scene — over- 
whelmed with grief at seeing the unutterable an- 
guish of her beloved Son, saith unto His mother, 
" Behold thy Son !" Then turning to His beloved 
disciple John, who was standing by, " Behold thy 
mother!" thus providing for His mother a home 
and a son, and for His disciple a mother. 

It was now three o'clock, and Jesus had hung 
on the cross three hours, and was exhausted by the 
excruciating pains which He suffered and which 
even dumb nature itself could not endure, for the 
sun hid himself, and there was darkness over all the 



CONCLUSION. 20 1 



land during these three ever-memorable hours. And 
"Jesus knowing that all things are now finished, 
that the Scripture might be accomplished, bowed 
His head and gave up His spirit," saying, with a 
loud voice, " It is finished !" and then, more gently, 
" Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." 
Immediately the veil of the temple was rent in 
twain, in token of His finished work, and the end 
of the Jewish dispensation and the coming in of the 
new Christian dispensation. Attested also by a great 
earthquake, and the rending of the hard and stony 
rocks on which this sad scene was enacted. 

As this was the preparation day for the Paschal 
Sabbath, which was near at hand, and as it was not 
permitted that dead bodies should remain on the 
cross over the Sabbath unburied, the Jews sent a 
request to Pilate that he would order their legs 
broken that they might be taken away and buried. 
'" The soldiers, therefore, came and brake the legs of 
the first and of the other which was crucified with 
Him, but when they came to Jesus and saw that He 
was dead already they brake not His legs ; howbeit 
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, 
and straightway there came out blood and water." 



202 MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 

This was another incident by which the Scriptures 
might be fulfilled, viz., "A bone of Him shall not 
be broken." And again, another Scripture saith, 
" They shall look on Him whom they pierced." 

And now all is over, " And all the multitudes that 
came together to this sight, when they beheld the 
things that were done returned smiting their breasts." 
Truly now they are convinced that this was the Son 
of God whom they had ignorantly crucified, for 
many of them believed on Him from that day ; even 
one of the rough, hard-hearted heathen soldiers was 
compelled to exclaim, " Truly this was a righteous 
man !" 

And now, dear friend, what do you say? Are 
you convinced now that Jesus was the Son of God ? 
Will you be more obstinate and hard-hearted than 
these Jews and Roman soldiers ? You remember we 
told you before that God had done all He could do 
for your salvation. Can you think of anything more, 
or would you have Him do anything more than you 
have witnessed He has done ? You have seen that 
sacred head, all radiant with the Divine glory, ex- 
coriated with the derisive crown of thorns, and those 
blessed hands and feet, which were ever exercised 



CONCLUSION. 203 



going about doing good and bestowing blessings all 
around, nailed to the cross with the horrid spikes, 
and that loving, affectionate heart which prompted 
Him to leave His throne of glory in the heavens 
and come down to this poor, sinful world to redeem 
it from its ruined condition, transfixed with the cruel 
spear, and then, amidst all this excruciating suffer- 
ing, inflicted by those whom He came particularly 
to save, while His blood was streaming from every 
pore of His body, calmly breathing out the prayer, 
" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do." O, friend, if your heart does not melt at 
such stupendous love as this, allow us to tell you 
that your heart is harder than those of these Jews, 
or of these Roman soldiers, — harder than the rocks 
that rent themselves asunder, harder than the sun 
that hid himself, harder than impassive nature that 
shuddered at the sight you have seen. 

But we hope for better things from you, dear 
friend, for we are sure by your serious countenance 
that your heart is touched (as we intimated to you 
that it would be) at what you have seen and heard, 
for we are sure that you cannot ever forget it, even 
if you would. And now, dear friend, we must part, 



204 



MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. 



and if we never meet again on earth, we trust we 
shall meet in heaven. In the meanwhile we entreat 
you to seek an interest in Christ's finished work. 
Remember His last dying words, " IT IS FIN- 
ISHED r 



THE END. 



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